Bitter
by psycochick32
Summary: Forced into a servitude she does not understand, Kimberly finds herself cut off from her past. 10 years later, she is in need of help; the past catches up with the present to take on an evil the Rangers could never expect. Kim/Tommy - IY Canon couples
1. Prologue

A/N: Yes, an MMPR/InuYasha crossover. Your eyes are not deceiving you. If you're only familiar with one half of the whole – please, don't worry. I intend to flesh out both back stories in a way that is not a lecture. The setting is in the MMPR-verse… so this is AU for InuYasha fans.

Prologue

_Early December, 1996_

As Kimberly Hart was dragged backwards into a dark alley, a disgustingly moist hand covering her mouth, she wished with all her heart that she had never given up her power coin, had never left the Power Rangers, had never left California.

Or that she had never gone with her friends out for a night on the town.

Or that she had never decided to walk back to the training compound alone.

Come to think of it, she had a lot of regrets… and this was not exactly her best day.

Nonetheless, the petite gymnast was _not_ going to just roll over and be a willing victim.

She spun in her captor's grip, wincing as the hand scraped across her cheek – his nails were ridiculously long, she thought in the recesses of her mind; the observation was pushed back as she remembered her boyfriend and her best friend teaching a self-defense class.

Rule number one – shout. Draw attention to herself. Her mouth now free of that revolting hand, she let loose. "Let go of me!" Her cries echoed off the walls – good.

'_Think of him as just another putty,'_ she tried to convince herself. _'They don't scare me.'_

Her time with the Rangers had served her well. _'I can do this.' _Kimberly brought her arms up between them and pushed, trying to get her leg up between them for leverage.

Dank breath washed over her face as her attempts to break free were thwarted; she cringed at the scent of rotten meat and something worse, something metallic… something she couldn't, or wouldn't, identify.

She flailed again, this time attempting to duck, to flip him over her shoulder. He clutched her to him, squeezing the breath from her lungs, and wrapped a leg around hers with a dark chuckle; this man was ridiculously strong.

Kimberly shrieked as the man used his hands – his _nails_ – to slice the back of her light hoodie; the man took the opening and shoved his tongue in her mouth.

'_No! No, no, no… TOMMY!'_

He wasn't going to save her this time. He _couldn't_ save her this time. Her white knight was three-thousand miles away; completely oblivious to the fact that his girlfriend was fighting for her life.

Her courage was renewed at the reminder that she was stronger than this – that she'd been through worse and come out fine; she chomped down on the tongue gagging her. The man howled – _a real howl, not a shout_ – and she slammed her forehead against his nose.

He growled, like a wild animal, and Kimberly's eyes locked on his teeth. Was the little light seeping in off the street glinting off _fangs_?!

Enraged, the man ripped her form-fitting tank top down the back, nails – _claws – _scraping painfully across her back. Then he embedded those teeth – _fangs _– into the junction of her neck and shoulder.

She yelped, eyes shut against the pain, unaware that she was glowing bright pink, lighting up the alley around her. She smelled burning flesh and nearly gagged but didn't dare open her eyes to figure out why. The sound of a whip, of an echoing scream of pain in her ears – her eyes flew open as her captor's arms dropped and she hit the ground.

Kimberly's first impression was of white – '_Tommy?'_ Her savior had an elegant hand wrapped around the attacker's neck, glowing green.

Green… white… _'Tommy?'_ Hope surged through her veins.

The attacker's eyes bulged and she let out a terrified sob as he flailed weakly… and hit the ground, blood streaming from a puncture wound in his throat. He coughed once… twice… and was silent. Dead.

Tearing her eyes away from the gruesome sight, Kimberly looked up, up, up at her savior. He was taller than Tommy, leaner… less muscular but for all the world looked like he could crush her in an instant. Yellow-gold eyes stared down at her.

Eyes used to sizing up monsters swept over the man in front of her. Pointed ears. Colored streaks on his face, a moon on his forehead. Long white hair billowed in the slight breeze. He wore eye shadow… at least eye-liner, and she covered a smirk. A cross-dresser, maybe? He was wearing a long, white trench-coat – it was immaculate, even in the alley. He shifted and she noticed two things in his belt… _'Swords. Who the heck carries swords?'_

He spoke – a deep, lilting sound – in a language she didn't recognize. Was he an alien? A new creature fighting for Zedd? The thought of the monster that had been so fixated on her made her shudder. _'No – Tommy said Zedd and Rita were gone. Something about… machines?'_ She couldn't remember, the shock of the night wiping other thoughts from her mind short of flashes of memory.

The creature – he couldn't be human – narrowed his eyes. Kimberly realized he'd stopped talking, and that she'd been staring.

"Um, no offense or anything, but I don't understand you."

He looked like he wanted to roll his eyes and Kimberly _did._ "What? It's not my fault. Speak English." She'd encountered plenty of Spanish-speakers in her time in Miami but this wasn't any Spanish she knew. Creole, either. When he didn't respond, she sighed. "Fine, well… thanks, anyway." Her eyes drifted to the body again. "I should probably call the cops. So, you might wanna get out of here. Yeah, you saved me and all and I really appreciate it but I bet the cops will be upset." He didn't move. "Shoo! Scram! Look, it's not that I'm not thankful or anything, but you'll get in trouble if you stick around."

What was he waiting for?

"Get the shard."

Kimberly blinked. Well, that cleared up whether or not he spoke English…

"Shard?"

"Surely you feel it. Follow the power and get the shard."

She tilted her head, noticing that his eyes were on the body. Her eyes swept over it… and noticed a faint pink glow in his shoulder. "The pink thing?"

Kimberly was drawn to it but loathe to turn her back on the thing that killed her attacker with one hand… she backed down the alley, sneaking glances over her shoulder so she didn't bump into anything and look like more of a ditz than she had.

Unwillingly kneeling near her attacker, she reached out to it. "Ewww…" The creature who saved her rumbled low in his chest and it echoed – she shuddered. It was a scary sound.

Kimberly reached out to touch the glowing thing and was surprised – and disgusted – when it slid easily from the skin. It looked like a piece of rock… pink with black shadows swirling around inside… and after she held it for a moment, the black slipped away.

Her hand pulsed, the feeling she'd had when she'd first been given her morpher, and she gasped.

A chuckle reverberated through the alley. "Excellent. You, miko, belong to me now."

"Excuse me?"

"You will serve me… or meet the same fate as the wolf."

"What are you?"

"Nothing you foolish humans would understand. If you must give me a title – I am Sesshoumaru, general of demons."

**Disclaimers:**

Anything from Power Rangers (and their affiliates) belong to Saban and Disney. I don't have permission to use them. I don't get any money for this, either.

That being said, I don't own InuYasha and Company either. The "real" InuYasha belongs to the genius of Rumiko Takahashi (and Viz and all those other companies involved).


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

_Mid-June, 2006_

Tommy Oliver was smacked in the face with humid heat the moment he stepped through the sliding doors of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Second later, he was smacked in the back of the head as one of his friends – he wasn't sure who, as they'd come up a bit too quickly – launched herself at him screaming, "TOMMY!" at the top of her lungs.

'_Ah, Trini.'_

Grinning wildly, Tommy swung his friend decked in yellow in a circle before setting her on her feet, only to be swamped by other six smiling friends.

"Bro, we've been waiting forever on you! What'd you do, have to fight off some monster intent on taking over the plane?" Jason joked. Wearing red and black, Trini's husband was as close to Tommy's brother as he could get without being blood-related; actually, he was closer than David, Tommy's real brother.

He shook his head. "Engine troubles, man. Ended up waiting an extra hour in Houston. All I could think was how much I missed teleporting everywhere... or my falcon zord."

"Wouldn't that fall under using powers for personal gain?" Adam asked with a bit of a smile. His wife – pop artist Tanya Sloan – grinned beside him before stepping up for her hug from Tommy.

"Probably," Tommy granted over her shoulder, "But honestly, Adam, I wouldn't have given a damn at that point."

Another friend in red, smiling a greeting and clutching his blue bag tightly, bounced on the balls of his feet – closest to the road, Rocky's eyes kept following the taxis driving by. "So, uh, yeah, great to see you and all, but are we gonna get something to eat?"

The dark woman standing next to him shook her head. "Boy, you reds eat more than anybody I've ever met." Jason, Tommy and Rocky glared good-naturedly at her.

"This is it, right? Nobody else coming today?" Zack asked. The dark man – one of Tommy's oldest friends – pushed a hand over his freshly-buzzed hair while also eyeing the passing taxis. "Rocky's not the only one waiting on some grub. Damn Tommy, we almost left you behind!"

Ignoring his friend, Tommy did a quick head-count. "Kat won't be coming in until next week." Looking around to make sure nobody would overhear, he added, "Haley's waiting for Billy to teleport in from Aquitar. They should be in tomorrow."

"Let's go then!" Zack watched as an airport worker waved over three cars after his own head-count. Tommy handed the condo's address to each of the drivers, and then slipped in the backseat of one with Zack and a couple bags – catching up with his friend after a couple years of near-isolation in Reefside.

OoO**OoO**OoO

Pushing open the door, Tommy dropped his bags and came to a screeching halt, only to be slammed into from behind his friends.

"What's the hold up?" Zack demanded. "Are we going in or not?"

Tommy stared around in awe. The place was huge! Almost unconsciously he moved to the side, only for his friends to react nearly the same way. Rocky let out a low whistle. "You said your friend Anton owns this place?"

Tommy nodded. "Yeah. He said, and I quote, 'Have fun. Stay as long as you want. Your friends too, you've been working too hard.'" He wasn't quite sure what Anton could have meant by working too hard – he was a high school science teacher, for God's sake – but even three years later, Anton was really apologetic after the whole "Mesogog" transformation incident; he felt terrible about interrupting Tommy's mostly-Ranger-free existence by turning into the "big bad" of Reefside.

For his part, Tommy felt bad for accepting, but some offers from a billionaire were just too hard to turn down. Tommy had jumped at the suggestion he and his friends spend a few weeks at the beach-side condo Anton owned in Miami. Beautiful weather, most of the trip financed by a billionaire friend and the chance to see friends from all over the country?

Who could turn that down?

"Whoa – check out the view!" Aisha gasped, standing at the sliding door to the balcony. The Atlantic Ocean stretched out as far as the eye could see. She stepped out and peered down, giggling. "Aaand," she called out, "Tanya, come check it out! Plenty of eye-candy!"

Rocky, walking back into the living room after checking out the kitchen, shook his head with a chuckle. "You're newly married," he reminded her. "I'm all the eye candy you need!"

"What happened to the 'look but don't touch' rule?" Aisha shot back with a grin.

A muffled shout of, "I call this room!" let the group know Tanya and Adam had found one of the bedrooms overlooking the ocean. That started a scramble down the hallway to battle it out for the remaining rooms with a beautiful view; as the person who'd secured the place, Tommy won out with Aisha and Rocky taking the third.

Jason, Trini and Zack pouted as they moved into the rooms on the opposite side of the hallway, Jason going so far as to shoving Rocky off-balance during his victory dance.

Still laughing, Rocky threw an arm around his wife and stared at Tommy. "So, we're here, we're all settled in; I'm still hungry! Let's go find us something to eat!"

Chuckling, the group marched out the door, double-checking that they had keys before finally heading for the elevator. Already inside was a tall man with long russet hair pulled back into a ponytail. Probably in his mid-20s, he didn't seem surprised to see the large collection of people and merely scooted against the wall to make room.

Once everybody was inside, the man winked an emerald eye at Aisha before motioning to the wall of buttons. "Going down, I presume?"

Tanya nodded. "You know it. Down and out!"

As they descended, Jason found it strange the way sparkling emerald eyes sized up each member of the crowd, lips kicking into an amused grin as he got to Tommy, lingering on his hair with a raised eyebrow.

"You from around here, man?" Zack questioned. "We're looking for a place to get some grub."

Mr. Green-Eyes grinned. "Yup, moved here several years ago, got plenty of places to suggest." He glanced around at the group again as the elevator let out a _ding_ and came to a stop. "I'm Shippou, by the way."

"Zack. You said… Chip-Oh?"

"Shippou," he corrected with a bit of a snicker. Noting Zack's confusion, he added, "It's Japanese."

"Oh. You don't look Japanese. Like, at all."

Shippou shrugged, "My family's a bit different than your average Japanese one." Trini was staring at him suspiciously – something about Shippou felt… _other-worldly_.

The rest of them made their introductions in between their own conversations, a bit nonplussed at the way Shippou's smile grew as each spoke up in turn. When Tommy introduced himself last, Shippou resembled the cat that ate the canary; they shared some looks before finally shrugging it off.

Being a ranger tended to make them all a bit more sensitive than most situations called for, after all.

"So, food?" Rocky repeated for what felt like the hundredth time.

"I'm on my way for some, myself. There's a great pizza place just up the road. Nothing fancy but damned delicious food… if you don't mind dodging crazy Miami drivers and a bit of a walk," he finished with a bit of challenge in his voice.

Rocky's eyes narrowed. "You're on," he shot back. "Nothing will stand between me and an extra-large pizza… mmm, with everything on it, extra cheese…" he trailed off, a dreamy smile on his face.

Shippou just shook his head and took the lead, crossing the road without a care in the world and sticking his tongue out at one of the honking drivers, much to the group's amusement. "You don't look like the type that downs food. Too athletic," Shippou mentioned.

"Rocky here could probably eat the rest of us under the table," Adam said dryly. Shippou just shook his head, leading the group down the road and musing at the turn the day had taken.

OoO**OoO**OoO

Kimberly leaned back in her seat, cursing her luck – or lack thereof – not for the first time. All she'd wanted was a drink and dinner with two of her only friends.

Instead, she'd had to warn them away to avoid suspicion; her "night off" had turned into an opportunity to spy on their most hated enemy.

'_Beggars can't be choosers,'_ she chided herself. _'This is primo info and Lord Stick-Up-His-Ass would send his little toad to bitch if he knew you blew off getting some intel for a beer.'_ Once again she entertained thoughts of batting the green creature away with the gigantic stick he carried around everywhere like some sort of prized possession.

Then again, knowing its _vaunted_ history, he probably slept with it at night. After all, it was a gift from _his Lord._

Feeling the pull of a shard from her left, Kimberly let her head incline gently, looking at her target through caramel hair. He stopped at nearly the same moment, ice-colored eyes darting around the room and taking discreet but deep breaths. She anxiously checked the ofuda plastered on the table – thanks to her monk friend's handy-dandy teaching skills, her scent should be completely blocked.

If only she could hide her appearance so easily…

"Hear anything?" Her mark got to business quickly.

"Nothing." She didn't recognize the gravelly voice but it sounded less-than-human… a demon, she guessed, a lower one with less ability to blend in. No wonder they were in the back of the shady bar.

A low growl rattled the divider between the booths. "Then what have you been doing with your time? I don't pay you to sit around."

"There are people," the rasping voice answered. "They have power… some stronger than others."

Kimberly perked up. They'd had a dry spell with shards lately – with most in either their or their enemy's hands, the few remaining pieces of a shattered powerful jewel were harder to come by. Hell, she'd had to travel to Egypt for the last one…

Fucking mummies, too easily revived by people with dark intentions.

"They wouldn't be shards," her target threatened, "or you would have already gotten them for me."

"Refill?" Kimberly started, chagrined that she'd been so lost in listening that a mere waitress had been able to sneak up on her. Forcing a smile, she waved away the waitress, unwilling to lose the thread of conversation.

Unfortunately, she'd missed half the response.

"-ain't like that. It's different." Mr. Raspy obviously lacked adjectives, she noted dryly.

"Describe it." She wasn't the only one who'd noticed.

Hemming and hawing, her enemy's informant wasn't forthcoming with the information, and she ran her thumb down the flat of the blade at her waist. _'Never escalate a battle,'_ she reminded herself, hearing her first real mentor's sonorous voice echo from the past. Didn't mean she couldn't daydream of beating the information out of him…

"Colorful," the informant rasped finally. "They're human but their auras aren't. They're all one color instead of most humans, ya' know?"

Kimberly blinked. _'No way. Can't be. I'd've heard if there were rangers down here.'_

"Look into it," the wolf demon – her mark, her enemy, her freakin' freedom, damn it – ordered. "If you fail me, I'll have your hide for new shoes."

"Yes, Kouga."

OoO**OoO**OoO

"Damn, this is awesome." Rocky gazed around at the park. "I thought Miami only had palm trees."

Jason gave his friend a confused look. "What, like, nothing else? They've got the Everglades down here, bro. Why wouldn't they have other kinds of trees?"

Rocky shrugged, kicking at a rock. Tommy grinned. "You're just lucky Haley and Billy aren't here. They'd lecture you for hours on the 'flora and fauna of the rich environment,'" he said, taking on the lecturing tone he often used with his students.

Rocky broke the ensuing silence. "No, really, it is nice. It's like home, but not. I'm not waiting on important phone calls or teaching or dealing with angry parents. I love the dojo and all but it's good to get away."

Jason nodded, understanding. "Trini really needed to relax; she can't wait to see Billy again and to make tech-talk with him and Haley."

Tommy agreed with both, "It's nice to get in a good vacation once in a while."

"Says the science teacher who has summers off anyway," Jason shot back dryly.

"Hey, bro," Tommy responded, "I'm not the one who's gonna have to pry the girls from the beach later." After a beat, he added, "Or Zack from his 'beach babes.'"

Rocky opened his mouth – no doubt to make a sarcastic comment – when sounds of a scuffle from their left caught their attention. Instincts honed through saving the world in several different fashions found them creeping slowly on the area, using trees and bushes for cover. Jason wished for his gun – after years of detective work, he felt naked without it. _'At least I still have my morpher,'_ he consoled himself.

A vicious roar cut through the unnatural silence that had fallen on the park and they began running. Active rangers or not, they could never _not_ check out what could be a dangerous situation for innocent civilians stumbling on the scene. Duty to the people and the honor to see that through by any means possible was deeply engrained in their psyches.

A female shouted, gunshots rang through the air, and the three put on a burst of speed; from dead ahead they heard a garbled yell and light suddenly shone, sparkling brightly as it shot through the trees, leaving a swath of destruction in its wake.

Another feminine shout was abruptly cut off. Halting at the next angry roar, Tommy, Jason and Rocky were about to activate their morphers when they each lifted their eyes to a silver-grey blur, interspersed with pink and brown, flying straight at them. The person-turned-projectile slammed into the trio, knocking through them like a bowling ball through pins. Tumbling to the ground, he or she finally skidded to a sloppy halt on his or her back.

The woman – it had to be a woman, judging by the size and build – let out a low, muffled groan. She lifted her arm and stared at the gash in the left arm of her grey body-suit before letting loose a string of curses and rolling, attempting to regain her equilibrium after the obviously unexpected flight.

Tommy was the first back on his feet; he'd only been clipped by the woman. He took the four or five long steps to her and knelt down, "Are you-"

He choked as he laid eyes on the heart-shaped face – a silver mask wrapping around the lower half of her face did nothing to hide her beauty… or the fact that he swore he knew her. _'There's no way…'_ Those eyes…

Doe brown eyes stared up at Tommy from above the mask. The eyes widened, blinked a few times, re-focused on the handsome face gazing down at her.

The two stared at each other in disbelief – time suspended as they each questioned their sanity. There was no way. Ten years had passed without a word between them. There was no way.

No. Way.

Jason and Rocky had managed to push themselves up by that time; Rocky was panting, having taken the brunt of the hit and having had the wind knocked out of him. They glanced between the two stuck in limbo and the trees, behind which a battle still clearly raged. Sharing a look, they stumbled over to where their friend sat hunched over the woman, wondering what had entranced him.

Rocky skidded to a stop, gaping.

Jason stared. He knew those eyes. "Kimberly?"

**Disclaimers:**

Anything from Power Rangers (and their affiliates) belongs to Saban and Disney. I don't have permission to use and abuse them as I plan on doing. I don't get any money for this, either.

That being said, I don't own InuYasha and Company either. The "real" InuYasha belongs to the genius of Rumiko Takahashi (and Viz and all those other companies involved).


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Kimberly licked lips she suddenly realized were dry and thanked God her mouth – wide open in shock – was hidden behind her mask. She refused to show them the excitement, the surprise – the _fear_ –that ran through her veins at the thought that they'd stumbled upon her so many years after she'd turned her back on her friends, her family… her hopes and dreams and life and –

Jason was talking, Kim realized belatedly, though she had no idea what he was saying. Tommy had yet to blink; his chocolate eyes (those beautiful, thick eyelashes still perfectly in place, she noticed jealously in passing) boring holes in her head as she pushed herself up. Her arm refused for a moment to bear her weight; she let out a hiss as it buckled and Tommy's hand shot to her shoulder to steady her.

'_Always the White Knight, whether he likes it or not,'_ she thought wryly, shooting him a thankful look.

"Kimberly?" Jason repeated, obviously just as shocked to see her as she was to see them. "It's… Kimberly Ann Hart, it's really you?" The girl he'd grown up with, thought of as a sister, had just about dropped off the face of the Earth their senior year in high school.

Now she'd dropped back in on them – literally – and he couldn't believe his eyes.

Kim nodded silently as she managed to shrug off Tommy's grasp. She rolled to her feet, ignoring the hand Jason offered, pushing the pain to the back of her head. Tommy finally averted his gaze, staring at Rocky, his expression undistinguishable. Nonetheless, Rocky seemed to understand and offered a consoling look.

A pang rocketed unexpectedly through Kimberly's heart. She remembered very clearly the days when she and her ex-boyfriend had been on the same mental wavelength. Now they may as well have been on different planets.

Jason stepped forward, concern over the blood trickling down her arm outweighing the shock of seeing a long-lost friend. She waved him off before he could grab at it; he refused to accept the answer and reached out again.

"Hey wench!"

The men whipped their heads around toward the trees; Kimberly let out a long-suffering sigh and rolled her eyes.

"If you've still got two legs and a heartbeat, you have no damn reason to not be over here!"

Jason's face darkened; apparently the years apart had done nothing to curb the brotherly protection that had been a part of him since they were in kindergarten. Before he could storm off, Kimberly launched herself at him and grabbed his elbow. "Don't!"

He turned incredulous eyes on her. Tommy had risen by this point; when she turned to sneak another peek at him she found his face twitching as though it wasn't quite sure what emotion to display. Rocky stood next to him in a show of solidarity, his arms crossed – unsure whether his pleasure at seeing Kim alive and mostly-well would win over his lingering anger (even all these years later) at the way she'd callously broken Tommy's heart.

Kim turned back to Jason, who was attempting to extricate his elbow from her iron grip without hurting her. "No, really, don't. It's not worth it. And…" Her voice lowered to a mutter. Muffled by the mask, it was just barely decipherable to Jason when she added, "not that I'd tell _him_, but dog-boy has a point."

She finally pushed away from Jason and cursed as she realized she'd lost her gun in her tumble. She grumbled under her breath as she headed back to the battle. Kimberly was about halfway there before it occurred to her; whirling on the balls of her feet, she found – as expected – that the three had begun to trail her.

"Do _not_ follow me," she ordered in a tone that rivaled Jason's and Tommy's "leader voices" perfected over the years of leading Ranger teams. "Stay here. Don't draw attention to yourself and for God's sake don't you _dare_ morph. This isn't your fight!"

Token resistance made – though she doubted the hard-headed alpha-males would listen – she turned back toward the battle and crouched, peering through the trees for a good opportunity. A scoff from behind her confirmed what she'd expected: sending an injured woman into battle had never been their thing, even when she'd had the protection of giant robots and magic spandex. Toss in the fact that they didn't know and therefore most likely didn't trust her allies… well, no amount of bad history with any of them was going to keep them away.

'_Fabulous. They have no idea what they're getting into, and I have no time to explain.'_

The men, Jason at the lead, had just about reached her when another masculine near-scream rattled the trees. A glimmer caught their eyes at the same time Kimberly let out a frustrated shout; she threw her hands in front of her, palms out.

Tommy gaped as a pink glow bloomed out from her hands, creating a sort of force field between them and where the worst of the fight was taking place. Spears of what looked like diamond tore through the foliage like a hot knife through butter – only to come to a screeching halt at the pink light. Looking to his left, the other two looked just as shocked; Rocky's jaw was nearly on the ground as Kimberly dropped her barrier.

"For the last time, _stay here_," she snarled before rocketing back into the fray, reaching for the gun that lay halfway between her and… -something almost unidentifiable.

For the former rangers, it was an oddly familiar scene. A tall creature – more animal than human – snapped a long jaw full of sharp teeth at a whirling red and white blur. That same blur grabbed Kimberly's bad arm and tugged her out of the way of the monster's next lunge; as they came to a halt, Kimberly freed her arm and cuffed her apparent rescuer in the back of the head.

"Are you stupid? You shot that blast straight at me! You could have killed me!"

"You're just fine!"

"No thanks to you!"

"If you would have stayed where I could see you, it wouldn't have been a problem!"

Kim huffed, rubbing the side of her gun on her bodysuit in an attempt to free the dirt caked on it. "Yeah, blame the girl thrown across a battlefield."

A small smile began to crawl across Rocky's face; happy to see her or not, he'd always been amused by Kim's attitude and it appeared it had only gotten snarkier over the years. To see her throwing around the dry commentary brought back memories of better times.

'_Of course, the witty banter was generally aimed at the enemy, rather than her friends…'_

"Hey, you two almost done over there?" A dark-haired woman wearing a black outfit similar in style to Kimberly's threw an unbelievably huge boomerang at the creature, who let out a god-awful shriek as the weapon carved across his back. "Any time would be great!"

Kimberly turned to face her other friend, rolling her eyes. "You've got it un-" A blast knocked her off her feet and kept her from finishing her thought.

"Kimberly!"

Tommy's agonized cry – almost straight from the past, both Jason and Rocky noticed – had her rolling to her feet in a smooth move. "Shut up!" Too late; Tommy's anguish had grabbed the monster's attention and they ducked back into the foliage as hands went to morphers instinctively.

"Not much cover, but it'll have to do," Jason assessed. "It's Morphin' Time! Tyrannosaurus!" Jason reveled in the power rushing through his body.

"Ninja Ranger Power now!" With a few hand motions, Rocky was enveloped in red robes.

Tommy sent up a quick prayer of thanks that he'd actually remembered to grab his zeonizer that morning. "Zeo Ranger 5, Red!"

Unfortunately for the three red rangers, what had once been a safe-guard against enemies ended up putting them in more danger than they anticipated.

"Excellent!" the monster hissed, taking a step toward them. The guys stepped forward and shifted into defensive positions as he advanced, teeth flashing happily. "Three of the colored brats… Kouga will pay a lot for that power."

"I wouldn't count on it!" Rocky shot back. He was about to shift into a ninja streak when the woman in black hurled her giant boomerang again with an indecipherable shout, cleaving a small trench between the monster and the red-clad men.

The creature wouldn't be deterred, however, and continued to advance.

Rocky all but disappeared into a smudge of crimson, ending up next to the unknown man in red. _'Is he growling?'_ the ninja ranger wondered.

Jason pulled out his sword, running to flank the creature on the left, near the dark-haired woman. He took note of the way she easily hefted the boomerang and wondered how such a big thing could be light enough for her to swing it like a bat.

"What is that thing?" he finally asked.

Her eyes flickered to the unfamiliar man next to her, wondering if this was one of the friends Kimberly always talked about. "Crocodile demon," she grunted. She pushed her weapon forward, using it as a shield as the demon swung its tail, letting loose a volley of energy blades. Jason cleaved through the ones headed toward him, though a few made contact – sending sparks flying from his outfit.

"There's too much red on this battlefield," Kim muttered, realizing belatedly that Tommy had flipped over the youkai, landing in front of her and whirling to face the monster in a defensive position – leaving her to cover his back if necessary.

'_Well, I guess he still trusts me in battle. Or he's acting on instinct.'_

Instinct, indeed, had seen Tommy rushing to Kimberly's side. While he knew she could take care of herself, keeping her safe had been all but ingrained into him. He'd hardly noticed what he'd done until Kim shoved him to the side and threw paper – _paper!_ – at the monster.

"What are you gonna do, wrap him up as a gift?" Rocky shouted from the demon's opposite side, earning a snort from his companion, whose massive sword had begun to crystallize.

"Just watch."

The demon screeched, a noise that had the rangers clapping their hands to their heads. Kimberly and her female friend merely cringed. The man standing next to Rocky let out a snarl; motion on the top of his head caught Rocky's attention.

"Holy hell, do you have cat ears?"

The comment, ringing through the air on the wings of the demon's howl, sent Kim into near hysterical laughter and earned an enraged growl from the cat-eared man. "Shut _up!"_ He swung his sword angrily, shooting off another barrage of crystals. These tore into the crocodile, who'd been stuck to the spot by arcs of pink energy leaping off the burning pieces of paper.

Jason gaped as the shards left nothing but ash behind and shot toward his friends. "Tommy! Kim!" He sprinted toward where he'd last seen them – hoping there was something left.

The dust cleared as Jason and Rocky drew closer; they found Kimberly had knocked Tommy on his ass and again put a wall of pink power between them and where the monster had stood. She looked up at them before taking a quick glance at Tommy. "Go ahead and power down," she said wearily. "They already know who you are."

"What?!" Tommy nearly exploded. Jason pulled his helmet off, refusing to power down but deciding to trust Kim's assessment that her friends could be trusted. Following Jason's lead, Rocky tugged his hood back in a smooth motion, eyes sweeping over his friends, who seemed fine – physically, at least.

Tommy was climbing to his feet, face still hidden behind the tinted star-shaped visor; Rocky knew damn well his friend was seething. Whether it had been the attack from somebody they thought was an ally or the fact that Kim had apparently saved him (stomping on an already bruised ego)… or maybe because he had ended up on the ground while a smaller, less dangerous-looking person had played the hero.

Or maybe he was pissed because Kim was there in the first place. Perhaps it was because her friends supposedly knew who they were. Rocky wasn't quite sure. Jason was looking between Tommy and Kim anxiously; Kim was about to erupt, it was written all over her face, and he wasn't quite sure who her ire was aimed at.

Kimberly's hands fell, clenched into fists as she stood up. She shoved her way through Jason and Rocky (who let out twin sighs of relief that her anger apparently wasn't directed toward them) and ripped her facemask off, dropping it on the ground.

The cat-eared man in red narrowed his eyes at the rapidly approaching woman, tensing as if for another battle. Behind him, the woman in black shook her head, a wry smile on her face.

Kimberly was only a foot in front of the man when she shouted, "God damn it, InuYasha! You could have killed me! And Tommy!" She reached out to shove at him – much like a child shoving at a redwood, given the height differences between the strange man and the tiny woman – and he caught her by the wrists, growling.

"You're fine! Just like last time! Stop getting in my way and you won't have reason to bitch!"

"Oh, I will _always_ find a reason to bitch at you with the way you wave that sword around! I know darn well you _have_ to be compensating for _something_!"

Jason tried to muffle a snicker but was unsuccessful; even Tommy got a laugh in, drawing InuYasha's attention. "What do you _humans_ think is so funny?"

The three red-suited men shared a look at the odd question; what was the emphasis on "humans" supposed to mean? None were willing to power down in the face of a person with weird animal ears and what appeared to be fangs for teeth.

"Oh, leave them alone," Kimberly said with a sigh, walking past InuYasha now to join her black-haired friend, who was looking over the area with a practiced eye. "Sango, did that walking hand-bag drop anything worthwhile?"

"Nothing. Feel anything?"

"Nothing." She glared at InuYasha, "Dog-boy will be feeling my boot in his ass in a minute, though."

"Aw, leave him alone. Diamonds are a girl's best friend, maybe he just felt friendly!"

Jason, Rocky and Tommy spun to face where a very familiar voice came from. Tommy began to remove his helmet, obviously to check his vision, when a seagull flapped down to the ground in front of them… and turned into a red-headed young man.

"Shippou?!"

Shippou greeted his new friends with a nod before smirking at Kimberly, who came to join them. "Nobody saw anything; I managed to divert a pair of beach bums headed this way."

Sango shot him a withering look. "Yeah, because you did so well with these three."

"I knew they would be fine," Shippou shrugged. He picked up a chunk of diamond and rolled it around in his hand. "You know, if dog-breath is so determined to go throwing them around everywhere, we might as well pick 'em up and make some money."

Kimberly rolled her eyes. "Yeah, if only Lord Stick-Up-His-Ass wouldn't get all pissed-off about it…"

Rocky finally lost his battle with his curiosity. "Um, not to break up this really interesting conversation or anything but… how do you," he pointed at Shippou, "know her?" he asked, swinging his finger around to Kimberly.

"And who are they?" Jason added, gesturing to where Sango and InuYasha were now… apparently talking to a kitten. "You've always been drawn to weird people, Kim, but this really tops any of us."

"None of us have animal ears," Rocky pointed out.

"Hey," Shippou said, "Let's not insinuate that demons or half-demons are any stranger than you humans."

Tommy blinked, finally bringing himself into the conversation. "Demons? You… you aren't human?"

"You look human," Jason added. The look he gave Kimberly demanded explanations, fast.

"Shippou's a fox demon," Kimberly said. "A kitsune, to be precise."

Rocky shook his head. "Kiss-you-what?"

"Kitsune," Shippou corrected. "Like my name, it's Japanese. Means 'fox-spirit,' basically. I'm a fox demon. I do illusions and stuff."

"Was that thing you were fighting a demon?" Tommy asked, eyes trailing back to where the crocodile had stood.

Jason nodded, "The girl over there said it was… a crocodile demon, I think."

"Why didn't it get any bigger?" Rocky added.

It was Shippou's turn to be confused. "What?"

"The monsters we fought," Rocky waved his arms about, "always got bigger! Like skyscraper-size! Godzilla-like!" He'd gotten that far before meeting dark glares from Jason and Tommy. "What? They obviously already know… Kim said so!"

Kimberly opened her mouth – to clarify or explain or deny, she never got a chance to say. Shippou cocked his head, holding up a finger.

"Your phone is ringing."

Rocky, Jason and Tommy each moved to their pockets, confused; they hadn't heard anything.

"No, hers," Shippou clarified. Kimberly had already begun sprinting to a nearby tree. A huge black bag leaned against the trunk – it took her a moment or two before she found her cell.

Jason made to ask Shippou a question; again, Shippou held up a finger. "Shhh! I want to hear who it is."

Tommy and Jason shrugged at Rocky's inquiring glance; they couldn't hear a thing, though Kim was nodding and writing something on her hand. Shippou cursed as she hung up. "She has to get going."

"I have to get going," Kimberly unknowingly echoed, sprinting back up to them. Sango and InuYasha followed behind her. InuYasha stopped Kim with a hand on her shoulder.

"Before you go, you want to do some explaining, wench? They're probably just as confused as we are. Why are you blabbin' about demons?" he punctuated his question with the cracking of knuckles – knuckles connected to fingers tipped in long claws. Rocky, Tommy, Jason and Sango agreed with his confusion.

Shippou just grinned and rocked back and forth on the heels of his feet.

Kimberly sighed, checking the time on her phone before hurriedly going into a Cliff's Notes version of the tale. "Jason, Rocky… Tommy," she added almost grudgingly, wincing as Sango's eyes lit up in understanding. "This is Sango."

The dark-haired girl smiled.

"This is dog-boy," she added.

He snarled.

"I'm sorry, InuYasha is his real name. He's a half-demon. Half dog-demon, to be precise, which is why he has those _adorable_ ears," she cooed with a smirk.

InuYasha looked like he wanted to hit her.

"And you obviously already know Shippou… even though I have no idea _how._"

"And you?" Rocky asked, eyes on Sango as she adjusted the boomerang over her shoulder.

"Human. I'm a demon-slayer, like Kimberly – hence the matching outfits."

Eyes widened as Sango referred to Kimberly as some sort of slayer. She hurried to explain, "It's a long story and I'll try to get the time off later to fill you guys in or maybe Shippou can do it but yeah…I slay demons now. At least until I'm free again."

Forestalling any questions from the guys, she turned to Sango and InuYasha next. "As you heard, this is Tommy, Rocky and Jason…they're my friends. _Were _my friends…are my friends?" She pointed to each in turn as she stumbled over describing their lapsed friendships, adding, "They were each Rangers with me back in Angel Grove."

Kimberly looked over her shoulder at the guys, confirming, "They already knew. And not from me – my _Lord_," she drawled sarcastically, "actually knew Zordon back in the day. Apparently the two almost got into some weird feud for a while."

Kimberly was spared continuing by a series of beeps well-known to each of the Rangers – it sounded exactly like their old communicators. In fact, each looked to their wrists before realizing it came from Kim's phone.

"Yeah? I'm on my way… shit! No, stay there… yeah, I'll meet you instead. Bye."

Looking up with a frown tugging at the side of her mouth, Kim stumbled headlong into what almost passed as a goodbye. "I really have to go; Ginta thinks he's been followed so I have to meet him at the Port instead."

InuYasha let out a string of curses that could peel paint from walls, spinning on his heel. "Stupid wolf. I'll go try to keep Kouga away. Sango, you're with me." The Rangers watched in awe as the kitten grew to the size of a decent-sized pony in a wreath of flames. Sango sat comfortably on the cat's back, reaching for a collar from Kimberly's bag.

Tommy, well-acquainted with invisibility after his last stint as a Ranger, was the only one of the three able to hide his shock when the cat and woman disappeared into thin air. Moments later, a burst of hot wind suggested they had flown away; InuYasha had leapt into the same area and vanished as well.

Eyes on the guys, Kimberly stripped out of her body-clinging armor, revealing a tank and ridiculously-tight shorts. "Take this for me?" she asked Shippou, who nodded. "Listen, I'll see if I can get permission to find you guys for some explanations…" She hesitantly met Tommy's eyes. "I know some are more overdue than others…"

"Just go," Shippou waved her off. "Your helmet is latched to your bike; don't run anybody off the road."

"I make no promises," Kimberly responded with a wicked smile. "Don't worry, Jason," she added to her anxious-looking friend. "I've done this a lot. Shippou, get their numbers for me. I'll call you after this meeting."

Shippou wasn't the only one who noticed the way almost-black eyes followed Kimberly's barely-covered backside up the trail, but he was the one unable to hide the smile.

"What?" Tommy snapped, realizing he'd been caught gawking and feeling rather irritated that he'd even given in.

The others shook their heads. "Nothing," Rocky soothed. "Let's get back…we have quite the story to tell."

Shippou nodded, "I'll come with. I live in that building – somebody's gotta keep you guys out of trouble!"

Rocky laughed, "Somehow, you seem like the type to make it!"

Emerald eyes flashed merrily. "I have nooooo clue what you're talking about…"

OoO**OoO**OoO

"Pay attention before I knock your head off your shoulders!"

Kim dropped to the mat just moments before a bokken could glance off her temple. She scissored her legs, lashing out with one as she spun. InuYasha leapt over it with a scoff. "You're getting predictable, wen-_ooof_!"

Kim grinned as the half-demon slammed onto his back, brought down by her second leg. "And you're getting cocky!" She let out a breathless chuckle as she rapped her heel on InuYasha's solar plexus, taking further admittedly slightly sadistic glee in the wheezy cough he produced.

"Do you yield?"

InuYasha narrowed golden eyes at her before rolling and leaping in a single, smooth motion. "Hell, no!"

Kimberly caught him by his wrists, landing heavily on her back and trying to use the momentum to flip them again but to no avail. He flashed one fang in a smirk, "Keh! You're too weak!"

Her face went dark. "Oh, that's it!" She released one of InuYasha's wrists and brought up her hand in a fist cloaked in pale pink, clocking him in the side of the face.

Rolling to the side, InuYasha brought a hand up to his singed cheek. His golden eyes were wide. "Holy shit, woman! What has you so pissed that you'd resort to purification?"

Kimberly was spared explaining as the door to the workroom opened. A heavily-pregnant black-haired woman all but waddled through the door, bringing InuYasha to his feet and by her side in a barely-visible blur. "Sit down," he ordered, pointing to mats stacked in the corner as he relieved her of a tray. "I didn't say you could be carrying stuff!"

The woman heaved a long-suffering sigh. "Oh knock it off, InuYasha. I'm pregnant, not on my death bed." Still, she made her way to the mats, shifting her attention to where Kimberly sat.

"I don't know of any other miko around here, so I'm assuming you're the one who put that mark on my husband's gorgeous face. What gives?"

Kimberly grinned. "I thought it could use some rearranging?"

"I liked his face that way."

"Sorry, Kagome," Kimberly sing-songed, obviously not apologetic in the least. "Next time I'll hit him in a place more easily hidden, I promise."

Kagome shook her head. "I swear, you two go at it more than him and Sesshoumaru."

Kim made a face. "If we could just avoid mentioning him altogether, that'd be great. It's so totally bogus how he got me into this mess."

"Did you just say 'bogus' and mean it?" InuYasha asked around a mouthful of rice. Kim eyed the way he was shoveling food into his gullet and her angry face shifted into one of disgust.

"I swear to God you put Rocky to shame."

InuYasha snorted. "I ain't impressed by your friends, by the way."

"I wouldn't expect you to be. You're not impressed with anybody but yourself," Kim shot back angrily. "And besides, the Rangers don't aim to impress. The Rangers are meant to keep the world safe."

"Did a damn fine job," InuYasha muttered. "How many times are they going to rebuild that damn town of yours?"

Kagome interrupted what she knew was about to become another legendary sniping battle between the two, who had been at each other's throats for one reason or another since they'd met. "Wait, wait. You met one of Kim's friends?"

InuYasha swallowed his last mouthful, putting down the bowl with a belch. Kagome glared and his ears shifted back apologetically.

Kimberly rolled her eyes at the exchange. "Yeah. Jase, Rocky… and Tommy," she added softly, "are down. Apparently on vacation or something. I ran into them – literally – while going after that croc demon today."

Kagome's eyes shone and Kimberly recognized the look. It was one she used to wear – back when she thought the world was romance and roses, when she was undoubtedly in love and thought the rest of the world should be, too.

Yeah, that went well.

Kimberly made to cut off Kagome's starry-eyed expression sharply. "Don't even think about it. Sesshoumaru would kill me."

"Nah," InuYasha interjected, "He'd kill them. He still needs you."

Her look could have dried the Pacific. "Thanks. That's _really_ soothing. You'll make a _great_ father." She cringed, knowing that jab had been a little below the belt.

"Is it just them?" Kagome asked excitedly, either ignoring the sarcastic comments or not having heard, getting too caught up in plans of match-making. "Or are the rest of your friends here?"

"I don't even know why _they're_ here," Kimberly shouted, standing up and beginning a series of stretching exercises. Kagome's eyebrows rose; Kimberly only began moving like that when she was nervous. "I don't know where they're staying, why they're here, or how long until they leave."

"Shippou does."

Kimberly sighed and turned to look at InuYasha. "I'm aware of that… and probably more frightened of that possibility than of risking Sesshoumaru's wrath."

"Oh come on, it won't be that bad," Kagome assured. "Sesshoumaru is reasonable."

Kimberly and InuYasha shared dubious looks, for once in agreement about something.

"Well," she qualified, "when asked by the right person. I'll talk to him. He doesn't like me," she grinned, "but he respects me."

"He's pissed at you," InuYasha pointed out. "You're pregnant and," his voice grew low in imitation, "of absolutely no value."

Kagome rolled her eyes. "No, he's angry at _you_ for 'defiling the miko,'" she mimicked.

Kimberly snickered, brought out of her nervous funk by the way the two emulated her Lord almost perfectly. "That is so _totally_ creepy and weird how you guys can do that." She flopped to the floor then, slipping back into the past. "I can't do this. I don't want to do this."

"Do what?" Kagome wondered. "See your friends?"

"The ones you never shut up about? The ones you have plastered around your condo? The ones you search for online to try and find out how they're doing? The ones-"

"Oh, shut up," Kimberly cut off InuYasha with a glare. "Yes. Them. The ones I cut off absolutely all contact with due to his royal majesty's threats of really disgusting, awful things. The ones who think I cheated on Tommy. The… the only guy I've ever actually loved, whose heart I stomped on callously to keep him away. Yes. Them."

Kagome cringed at the assessment. "Ouch."

"Well, ain't nothin' you can do 'bout it now," InuYasha pointed out with a shrug. "Go whine to Shippou if you're so worried. He obviously ran into them at some point, maybe he knows somethin' you don't."

OoO**OoO**OoO

Trini sat on the couch, staring out the window at the waves rippling ashore. A dusky sky reflected off the water, making the scene look like something from a magazine.

She still couldn't believe it.

'_Kimberly's here? And fighting demons?'_ It was just too weird. If she didn't know Jason would never lie to her – especially about something like this – she would have thought her husband was pulling the wool over her eyes.

She and Kimberly had been best friends since second grade. The petite gymnast had been a great match for the brainy karate student; they got along from the moment they met and had been best friends through high school. When Trini had left for the Peace Conference with Jason and Zach, they'd promised to keep in touch… and had, nearly religiously.

Phone calls, letters, post cards… Trini loved picking up knick-knacks to send to her best friend back home, and Kimberly kept Trini up-to-date on the latest Ranger news and Angel Grove gossip. There hadn't been much of a lull in communication when Kimberly had moved to Florida, either. Trini had just started dating Jason and the two would stay up for hours talking about the men in their lives; Kimberly had been so frightened to lose Tommy to the long-distance relationship and Trini had been worried that Jason might just be clinging to a feeling of closeness that was difficult to find as the student ambassadors traveled the globe.

Then Kimberly missed their weekly call. She didn't call the next week, either, or offer up an explanation in a letter. Trini had panicked, thinking something was wrong, and called Tommy – only to find out that she had broken up with him.

Which had been the weirdest thing of all.

Kimberly _loved_ Tommy with a passion Trini had no comparison for. He had been the be-all and end-all of her best friend's existence. Trini knew damn well that no matter how excited Kim had been for the Pan Global games, she'd been counting down the days until she got to go home to Tommy. And Tommy had been just as in love with Kim; the two had eyes for nobody but each other.

And yet… Kimberly claimed she had found another guy. She'd fallen in love with somebody else. Without telling Trini – and that was what had been the icing on the weirdest cake Trini'd even seen. If there was one thing Kimberly loved as much as gymnastics (a close second to Tommy in her life), it had been gossip. Trini knew everything about the girls Kim trained with, the cashiers at her favorites stores at the mall, the mother-like figure who took care of the girls at Coach Schmidt's training compound… she'd never, ever mentioned another guy in anything but passing.

It was so un-like Kimberly that Trini couldn't wrap her mind around it.

"Hey, you okay?"

Trini's head jerked up, eyes meeting with those of her husband as he knelt to be even with her. His arms wrapped around her the moment he realized how troubled she was.

"What's got you so upset?"

Trini sighed. It wasn't like her to be moody or pensive – her mind and her body were trained to be calm and efficient. _'It's just like Kim,'_ she thought wryly, _'to throw everything into an uproar just by being around.'_

"Do you think we'll learn the truth?"

Jason didn't have to ask what his wife was referring to. Both had agreed long ago that Kimberly hadn't just met another man. That wouldn't have accounted for her basically falling off the face of the Earth. She hadn't even responded to the wedding invitation they'd sent; that had solidified everything. There was no way in the universe that Kimberly would have willingly missed that. "I don't know," he admitted. "But I really hope Shippou has some answers."

"If he does, let's go get them," Zach said excitedly from behind them. He was psyched at the thought of finally finding out what had happened to his childhood friend.

"I, too, am quite intrigued at the prospect of learning what circumstances could have led Kimberly to halting communications," Billy joined in. The young man frowned at the looks of confusion on Jason's and Zach's faces and ran his hands through sandy-colored hair. It'd been such a long time since he'd left Earth, and he'd been forced to fall back on his vaunted vocabulary; the translator he used on Aquitar didn't work with colloquialisms.

"He wants to know why she stopped talking to you guys," Hayley translated as she came down the hall. Billy threw her a thankful look. As children, Trini had always been his translator; his vocabulary, like his IQ, had outstripped his friends from the start. As the self-proclaimed "nerd" of the group, the first Blue Ranger had eventually begun to dumb down his speak when Trini, Zach and Jason left for Switzerland – leaving him without a translator.

Adam was smart, but apparently even he had his limits.

Now, though, Tommy's friend Hayley was able to share Trini's "translator" role. The genius had been thrilled to meet Billy via the link-up between Aquitar and Tommy's basement command center. It was a very poorly-hidden secret that his friends hoped Hayley would give Billy reason to stay on Earth…

The red-head _was_ beautiful, but Billy was happily committed to Cestria on Aquitar. He admitted only to himself that it was weird – the idea that a human would fall in love with an alien… but Aquitarians were similar in physiology to a human for the most part and they were light-years ahead of Earth's inhabitants when it came to science and education. He loved his role on Aquitar, no matter how much he longed for some of Earth's finer points: his friends, his family, cheeseburgers…

"Are you sure you're feeling up to going?" Hayley asked Billy, interrupting his musings. The man had teleported in from Aquitar just earlier that day; they'd barely made their flight from Reefside to Miami. He'd been on the go since before the day had started on Earth and if she had to be honest, he looked awful. Smudges under his eyes, slumped posture – which was to be expected anyway, since Earth's gravity was stronger than that of the water-covered Aquitar… Hayley had often been the one to keep Tommy from overdoing it in college. His friends were all similar.

"I'll be fine," Billy assured her. "My condition is not so depreciated that I cannot remain coherent for a few more hours."

"Well, we going?" Adam asked softly from near the door. The rest of the group had migrated into the living room while Trini had been thinking. Everybody looked at each other before nodding; it was hard to miss the fact that nobody managed to look Tommy in the eye.

Out of each of the friends, he had the most reason for wanting to know just what the hell was up with Kim – and the most reason for wanting her to stay gone. Most were subdued as they walked down the hall toward the elevator; Zach was thrilled and somewhat bouncy (of course, he was hard to keep down even in the most trying of circumstances) about the whole ordeal and tried to get Rocky to be excited with him.

"This will be great, won't it? Shippou's place is higher, so I bet the view is better," he nudged the pale man. "What was 'Sha's rule? You can look but don't touch?"

"I dunno," Rocky gave in with a small smile, "if it's as high up as I think, the ladies might all look like ants!"

The two bantered back and forth, hoping to cut through the tension that seemed to build as the elevator rose.

The doors parted with a _ding!_ and the group found themselves facing another door almost immediately. Trading glances with Tommy, Jason raised his hand to knock… and nearly bashed in Shippou's skull as the door was thrown open.

"Hey guys!" Shippou looked up at the raised fist and emerald eyes widened. "Whoa, hey, what did I do? Don't kill the messenger!"

Jason lowered his hand with a bit of a blush staining his cheeks. "Sorry, was gonna knock…" he mumbled, trailing off.

Shippou waved aside his apologies. "You had no way of knowing I could hear the elevator. What are you all standing out there for? Come in, come in! Make yourself at home!"

No matter how much gaping the group of friends had done when they saw Mercer's condo, it paled in comparison to the wide eyes darting around the absolutely huge expanse of space.

"Whoa – somebody has a kickass interior designer," Aisha said.

"Kimberly did most of this once I bought the floor and tore down most of the walls to rebuild," Shippou said flippantly, bounding for the kitchen. "Soda? Water? Something a bit stronger, perhaps?" he called out over his shoulder.

"Whatever," Zach responded, taking in the huge surround-sound stereo. "I thought you said he was a demon and had some mad hearing skills," he shot over to Jason.

"Yeah," his friend clarified, eyeing a collection of swords and other weaponry with awe. "That's what he said – and what we saw."

"So why the huge speakers?"

"For when I have human friends over," Shippou clarified, hauling a cooler full of drinks to the center of the room. "Here – help yourselves. I'm nobody's maid, but that doesn't mean I don't have a lot of stuff to eat or drink. If you want something else, I probably have it – it's just in the kitchen."

Cracking open a beer, Tommy settled on a white leather couch with a serious look on his face. "Are you going to give us answers now?"

From around the room, gazes turned from Shippou's various treasures to the two staring each other down.

Shippou broke first, tearing his eyes from Tommy's solemn expression and focusing on the door to the elevator. "A lot of it isn't my story to tell," he demurred. "But I can share a little. Any questions to start?"

"You acted like you knew us in the elevator," Tanya said from beside Adam. "Did you?"

Shippou grinned. "Yeah – once I'd heard your names. I've seen a lot of pictures of you guys; well, fewer of you," he noted of Tanya, "and heard a lot of stories. There was another woman, though…"

"Katherine," Aisha confirmed. "She's in Australia but will be here next week. And that's Hayley. You probably don't know her, but she's Tommy's college friend."

Shippou nodded his greetings to the redhead. "Anyway, Kimberly told me all about the Power Rangers when she learned that we'd met Zordon. We knew him before you guys were even thought of," he said to shocked looks. "That Alpha 5 was a riot, wasn't he?" Shippou's eyes unfocused as he thought about his robotic friend.

"So… you knew Zordon," Billy encouraged when it seemed like Shippou was drifting into his thoughts.

"Oh! Yeah, sorry," Shippou replied sheepishly. "We ran into your Command Center while checking out the area around Angel Grove for some shards. It's a long story, I'm sure Kim will tell it when she gets here."

"Kim's coming?" Trini asked hopefully.

"Yeah. I cleared it with Sesshoumaru… he's her employer, of sorts," Shippou said. "She, uh, doesn't know you guys are here, though."

A grin crawled across Rocky's face. "Well, she always _did_ like surprises."

"Less nowadays," Shippou said. "After all, a surprise attack got her into this mess in the first place."

"What do you mean?" Hayley asked suspiciously. She'd always hated how Tommy had never really been able to let go of his first love, even after she'd so callously broken his heart.

Shippou looked up, staring at the door. "Well, here she is now, so we can let her tell you!"

A click at the door suggested somebody was unlocking it; feminine muttering could be heard from the other side and it was only partially opened before Kimberly's voice rang out.

"Shippou? You did remember that I said if this door is booby-trapped one more time I'm going to pluck the fur off your tails one by one and wear them as a scarf, right?"

'_Booby-trapped?'_ Zach mouthed to Shippou, who looked highly amused.

"It's safe," Shippou called out soothingly. "This time, at least. I've been too busy to get into any shenanigans."

"Yeah right," Kimberly muttered, looking down to remove her sandals as she entered. "You get into shenanigans in your sleep, you foxy brat. Now, you said you had a surprise for me, so where is it?" she asked playfully, finally turning around.

The moment her eyes landed on her friends, her mouth dropped.

"Sh-Shippou? Does… does _he_ know?" Her eyes, suddenly narrowed in fury, fell on her fox demon friend. "If everything I went through was in vain just because you felt like being cute I swear-"

"It's fine, he knows. He says you deserve the break." Intercepting Kim's dubious expression, he added, "Well, that's not _exactly_ what he said. But he did say that so long as you don't let them interfere with your '_priorities_,'" Shippou stressed, using his fingers as quotes, "you were welcome to greet your friends and provide some explanations. Something about re-integrating with the real world once things are cleared up," Shippou finished helpfully.

Kimberly stared, eyes darting around the room before meeting Tommy's. A few breaths later, she hit the ground in a dead faint.

**Disclaimers:**

Anything from Power Rangers (and their affiliates) belongs to Saban and Disney. I don't have permission to use and abuse them as I plan on doing. I don't get any money for this, either.

That being said, I don't own InuYasha and Company either. The "real" InuYasha belongs to the genius of Rumiko Takahashi (and Viz and all those other companies involved).


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Miroku ran as though the hounds of hell were after him.

If for some reason his ofuda had been ineffective, it was entirely plausible they were.

His sandaled feet slapped against the pavement, echoing off of the dilapidated buildings. For a moment, Miroku was thankful he was being forced to cut through the gang-ridden district; citizens were much less likely to do a double-take at a man running for his life.

Sadly, it wasn't exactly a rare sight.

Those thoughts drifted to cursing himself for not asking to borrow Kim's bike. It'd be much faster than running down the road; he refused to take a taxi and potentially put an innocent human in harm's way.

Darting around a corner, Miroku somehow managed to trigger the light on his watch without throwing himself off-balance. Stealing a quick glimpse, he figured Sango would have been home for an hour or so… provided she wasn't out on a hunt.

Snarls resonated from behind him. _'Worth a shot!'_ Miroku fished out his cell phone and fumbled for his speed-dial. _'C'mon! Pick up!'_

"Hello?"

Panting was the only thing to follow Sango's greeting; she was silent for a moment before pressing, "Miroku? Where are you?"

Swallowing and daring to slow down for a moment, Miroku rattled off the nearest intersection. He was only able to put on another short burst of speed to duck into an alley before needing to stop and catch his breath; his chest burned with exertion. He leaned against the crumbling brick wall, legs shaking.

His eyes continued to sweep the area to his right, left, and in front of him. The brick behind him was somewhat soothing – protective. Fingers itched for his staff; he'd left it at home, knowing the jingling of the golden rings would be nothing but a liability.

Still feeling hunted, Miroku whipped out another ofuda and slapped it to the ground, creating a small barrier to hunker behind. A little too small – he had to hide his scent with the thing, as well. _'Damn demons!'_

"Kirara's on her way," Sango assured him after a moment of silence over the line. Worry tinged her voice as she continued, "Is everything okay? Did you learn anything?"

"Well," Miroku wheezed, "Kim's gonna kill me. Maybe. But I have information for Sesshoumaru so maybe I'm less likely to die… at least until I deliver it."

"Good news?" He could hear rustling on the other end and envisioned his lovely wife pacing back and forth across their living room.

Miroku winced, trying to decide. "Well, it could go either way, depending on what kind of mood our Lord is in when I speak with him." He stared at his prize, clenched tightly in his fist. "This news should be delivered in person."

Sango hemmed and hawed on the other end of the line; Miroku could visualize her chewing on her bottom lip, one of many habits picked up from years around Kimberly. "Does Kim have _good_ reason to kill you?" she finally asked, choosing to change the topic of conversation.

"I claim self-preservation."

"It's not self-preservation if you do something that'll get you killed in the long run," Sango responded dryly.

Miroku managed a smile. "Anything to guarantee I get to see you one last time, milady."

"What'd you do, Miroku?"

"I may or may not have been forced to take down Daniel."

Sango cursed under her breath. "Yeah, she's not going to be too happy with you. Come home before you go see her; she's already going to be in an awful mood and I'd hate for you to die before I could get a last kiss good-bye."

Miroku blinked and leaned his head back to stare at the phone. Gathering his bearings, he asked, "InuYasha mentioned something similar – not the kiss, but about Kim's mood, I mean – before I went on this mission. What's wrong with her?"

Sango gave him a quick run-through of Shippou's plans regarding Kimberly and her high school friends: how he was going to have Kimberly explain her decade-long absence from their lives, her current mission and how it was coming to an end… the reason she broke up with her high school sweetheart.

"Won't Sesshoumaru have something to say about that?"

"Shippou seems to think it'll be okay; after all, the jewel is almost complete. What'll Kim do then?" she asked. "I'm sure Sesshoumaru wouldn't mind keeping her on as a miko; God knows he could use somebody with her particular skills. But she'd have to put a muzzle on that mouth of hers, and-"

Miroku's muffled scoff cut Sango off. "Yeah, he'll probably be pleased to see her go. I don't think he expected the girl he saved so long ago to be so spunky."

Their conversation was cut short by the rush of hot air swooping low over Miroku, along with the touch of jyaki that betrayed Kirara's presence.

"Kirara's here," Miroku reported as he peeled away the barrier. Able to scent Miroku again, the feline returned to brush up against his side; it was difficult to mount an invisible ride, but Miroku had had plenty of practice over the years. "I'll be on my way after stopping by to see our Lord; he'll want the evidence I've gathered."

Sango wished him luck and then hung up, leaving Miroku just a moment to tuck his phone away before Kirara lifted off the ground.

Snarls rang out from behind them as the wind picked up his scent once again; a lone howl passed the loss of the enemy back to their leader before dark creatures melted back into the shadows. Miroku breathed a sigh of relief and dragged his eyes from the darkness to the white feather clutched firmly in his fist. Inconspicuous though it seemed, the jyaki surrounding the adornment suggested its connection to an other-worldly being…

The one being alive that Sesshoumaru still truly cared for.

OoO**OoO**OoO

Setting the phone aside, Sango sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Stress just kept building; she hoped Miroku's news would help ease the tension that flowed through each member of the force working for Lord Sesshoumaru. Almost everybody she knew was in the demon lord's employ, meaning everybody she cared about was facing death on a continuous basis.

It hadn't ever really bugged her before… why now?

Forcing her eyes open – _when had she shut them?_ – she focused on the framed pictures along the mantle of the fireplace. One picture stood out from the others; an image of seven young-looking people relaxing on a large yacht. Three dark-haired women gazed out of the frame, smiles on their faces.

'_Kagome looks so different now,'_ Sango thought as she reached out to grasp the frame. Several years later, her friend was heavy with child and unable to do many of the things they'd done together before. Behind her, InuYasha stood protectively. Having finally found the reincarnation of his love again, he'd follow her around the world in a heartbeat.

_She'd_ ended up following _him_ to Miami.

Sango sighed as her eyes moved to the young man laughing in the corner of the picture – her brother, Kohaku, had been gone for several days. Sesshoumaru had sent him to Japan on a rumored shard hunt; he'd been so excited to be sent on his first out-of-country mission. She couldn't help but worry; unlike his pre-incarnation, Kohaku hadn't been trained as a slayer. He'd preferred to study medicine until the first wave of demons came after their family… Sesshoumaru had seen enough within the first few minutes of Kohaku's defense and ordered him trained.

'_We'll never have normal lives,'_ Sango thought angrily. She'd learned all about the woman she "used to be" and refused to accept that her destiny was pre-determined.

She didn't mind her soul being drawn to Miroku's, but she wasn't about to die in an epic final battle.

Shifting aside her frustrating thoughts, Sango focused on the image of herself and Miroku. The two had been inseparable at that time; Shippou had explained it as their souls getting "re-acquainted" with each other or some silly thing. As silly as it sounded to her, though, it seemed to be truth.

Thank the Gods they'd moved past that particular hurdle. Though she continued to worry about him, nowadays she was able to continue on with her life while Miroku was out on a mission. The first year they'd known each other, she'd almost grown to resent the effect he had on her; Sango prided herself on being self-reliant, so putting her life consistently on hold to angst over somebody she barely knew chafed.

The last two people in the picture were as different as night and day – and followed each other just as devotedly. When they'd first met, Sango had wondered what Shippou and Sesshoumaru had seen in the girl. Sure, she was undeniably skilled in the martial arts, had more holy power than she knew what to do with (more than likely enhanced by the magic of the Power Coin she had held), and projected a fearless façade easily enough, but was so… _girly_. Having been raised from a child as a demon slayer (one of the very few families that still clung to the old ways), Sango couldn't understand how somebody could battle one minute and agonize over her hair the next.

After a while, though, Sango had realized it was Kimberly's way of clinging to her old life – her life before Sesshoumaru, before even her days with the Power Rangers. Kimberly'd broken down to Sango one night over all her regrets – leaving the Rangers, coming to Florida to train in gymnastics, acquiescing to Sesshoumaru's demands that she cut off all contact with her former friends.

They'd been virtually inseparable ever since.

It was Shippou, though, that Kimberly stuck with to remember "the old days." Shippou had never let Kimberly sink into a depression after being cut off from friends and family alike; instead, he'd welcomed her to the group and encouraged her to make the best out of what had looked like a bleak situation. He kept Kimberly grounded (well, as grounded as a girl known for random Valley Girl-esque moments could be)… and Kimberly kept Sango connected to the world outside of battles and honor and revenge.

They leaned on each other, and Kimberly had admitted more than once that the teamwork they'd grown to rely on kept her sane – again, it was reminiscent of her friends and the bonds they had shared as teenage superheroes fighting bizarre monsters sent by villains from space.

And now those friends were in South Florida. Sango took a quick look at the time and winced; _'Kimberly's probably filling them in on everything right now.'_ She wondered how the former Rangers would take learning that everything they'd assumed about Kimberly's life after moving from Angel Grove had been a lie.

Most of all, Sango wondered how Tommy would take it.

OoO**OoO**OoO

Kim hit the ground and Shippou stared. He'd seen her get knocked unconscious by plenty a demon and had heard stories of the gymnastics accident that had nearly scared her away from the sport right before she left the Rangers. He'd seen her take the mall by storm, force Sango into a chair for "hair time" and even con the slayer into painting her toenails with blue glittery polish.

And yet, he'd never seen her do something as… _girly_… as faint.

He could hear Kimberly's heartbeat – a bit faster than normal, her breathing a bit too shallow to be completely healthy – and knew she'd be fine shortly. Nonetheless, before he could speak up, Jason was out of his seat and by the woman's side, Billy at his heels. The man was speaking in geek-talk, Shippou noticed, and immediately tuned him out – too technical for his tastes.

Instead, his attention turned to where Tommy sat, stiff as a board. Anybody with eyes could see just how much effort he was exerting to keep himself from the woman's side; Tanya actually looked stunned that he'd pulled it off, and Haley stood behind her friend, hand on his shoulder in a show of soothing solidarity.

'_If Jason hadn't been here, Tommy would have been on his knees by her right away,'_ Shippou estimated.

It was a moment or two before Kimberly was cajoled awake; as she blinked away disorientation, Jason and Billy got her situated in a leather recliner with a drink at hand. She shooed them away, looking irritated with herself, and it was only then that Shippou realized Zack and Rocky were _laughing_.

"It's not funny, guys," Kimberly mumbled mutinously. Her face was stormy; this was quite obviously not the evening she'd been planning on, and for a moment, Shippou felt bad.

Then his curiosity won out over his guilt and he just _had_ to find out why Kim's fainting spell amused her friends.

"For a gymnast, Kim's not always the most steady on her feet," Zack explained with a grin. Conversely, the look on Kimberly's face could have cracked granite. "She has a tendency to hit the ground when she's shocked."

"Like when Tommy came back as the White Ranger," Jason added teasingly, shooting the guy in question a glance. It was clear he'd decided to trust Kim's assertion that her new friends could be trusted – and well, if they knew already, then it didn't really matter – and he told the story with relish. "Zordon and Alpha both disappeared and here we're at the end of our rope and Tommy'd been gone for a few days and we had no idea what to do. Then they spring this new Ranger on us."

After confirming that the only thing hurt on Kimberly was her pride (and what looked to be a healing wound from the battle earlier that day), Trini picked up the tale. "They brought him in so dramatically, and Kim's all upset because Tommy had lost his powers and could take these new ones -"

"We were all discouraged by the apparent failings of our skills and weaponry thusfar in the day, which only increased our apprehension," Billy inserted. His eyes drifted to Tommy, whose gaze remained focused on the recovering woman across the room. "Of course, Kimberly was not alone in speculating why Zordon and Alpha would turn to another human when Tommy had already integrated himself as our compatriot on and off the battlefield."

Shippou stared blankly at the sandy-haired man.

"It'd been a bad day; they were losing the fight and throwing another person into the mix only made it worse," Haley translated. Shippou's eyes lit up with understanding.

"Anyway, so there's all this bogus tension and Tommy pulls his helmet off oooooooooh so slooooooowly," Zack jumped in. "Like he was just having a blast pulling off this surprise."

"And I got all overwhelmed and passed out," Kimberly wrapped up the story with a bit of a pout. "It's not quite as funny as they think."

"Says you," Zack shot back good-naturedly.

"And girl, what about the time you ended up in the past and Tommy's hot ancestor came to your rescue?" Aisha threw in, to Adam's and Rocky's amusement. "You told me you hit the ground then, too."

Tommy's eyes sparkled though his face remained unchanged – it appeared to Shippou that Kimberly's ex-boyfriend hadn't heard that particular part of the story.

"Anyway, this isn't really the time to be reminiscing and stuff," Kimberly said quickly. "This isn't about our times as Rangers."

Jason's face hardened. "Are you finally going to tell us what's been happening?"

"And why you stopped talking to us?"

"How about what was up with the demon fight today?"

The questions blended in with one another as each of her old friends began sharing what they wanted to know. A few moments' worth of the noise was all she could take; Kimberly held up her hands in supplication. "I know, I know. I owe a lot of you some answers… some more than others," she said dryly, unable to meet Tommy's eyes.

"Girl, we just wanna know what's goin' on," Aisha said, coming to sit on the footrest by Kim's chair.

Rocky followed his wife, adding, "And if there's anything we can do to help." Heads around the room bobbed up and down with Rocky's pronouncement; Kimberly couldn't bring herself to see just who had agreed and – more importantly – who hadn't.

Trini made herself comfortable, motioning for the few still standing to have a seat. "Why don't you just start slow, from the beginning?"

Kimberly worried her lower lip and her eyes swung to meet Shippou's. "Well, that's kind of hard. This apparently started long, long before we were born-"

"Why don't you just explain how you became a part of it?" Jason interrupted. "Then we'll talk about what 'it' is."

"A-all right." Kimberly was silent for a moment before giving in to Shippou's encouraging nod. "A week before I mailed that stupid letter," she started, deciding she may as well jump in feet-first, "I was attacked."

She said it nonchalantly, and that was to be expected. Every single person in the room had been kidnapped, brain-washed or otherwise turned evil, the victim of a spell – Rangers tended to draw all sorts of problems, in and out of uniform. So the pronouncement that she'd been attacked wasn't very big news at all. Most of her friends were thinking along the same lines: if it had been Zedd, or Rita, or the Machine Empire, Zordon would have let the Rangers know.

"It wasn't any of _our_ enemies," Kim went on to say, as though knowing exactly what they were thinking. "It wasn't for my Power Coin – which I didn't have any way – or as bait for the Rangers or to sacrifice me to some purity-hungry ancient evil as a wedding gift," Kimberly listed, referring to the various reasons she'd been taken hostage on what they referred to as "Ranger business."

"So why _were_ you attacked?" Haley asked, a bit frustrated at the way Kim seemed to dodge actually giving any answers. Kim's eyes bore into the woman as she realized she had no idea _who_ the redhead sitting so close to Tommy actually _was_. And though she'd broken up with him _very_ callously so many years ago, it nearly destroyed her to see somebody so close to him…

"Two reasons," Kim answered, wrenching her gaze away from the mysterious person and her ex-boyfriend. "One was so he could get to know me in a very physical way-" she was interrupted by angry outbursts from her male friends.

"You were raped?" Rocky asked indelicately, cringing as Kim winced. "Sorry, not to just blurt it out or anything but…"

Kim waved off his apology. "It's fine. He didn't actually get the chance to rape me, but it was definitely on his to-do list. No, Sesshoumaru 'saved' me before then." Her fingers actually came up to make quotes around "saved."

Silence fell for a moment as each took in the idea that a former ranger could find themselves in such a predicament. It was strange, to think that humans could be so dangerous when they'd fought off advancing aliens.

Kimberly sighed. "The wolf – and I mean that in a literal sense… it was a wolf demon who attacked me – was also after me to… well, either take me hostage or taint me. I never got a chance to find out which one, specifically, but there have been enough follow-up attacks that I know it was one or the other."

Adam stared at Kimberly with a bit of confusion. "Taint? Like what Maligore did to you and Jason on Muranthias?"

It was Shippou's turn to be confused and demand explanations from Kimberly and she sighed. "This would be a lot easier if I weren't trying to mesh two lives into one in a short period of time."

"When Kim came home like, a year or so after breaking up with Tommy, she and Jason were kidnapped by a space pirate," Tanya told Shippou helpfully. "They were taken to a volcano on an island called Muranthias; the pirate Divatox wanted to restore Maligore, who lived in the volcano, and marry him. So she sacrificed Kim and Jase and he fed on their purity and turned them evil."

Shippou cringed. "Oh geez, Kim. Is that why you high-tailed it back here? You were supposed to be out there for two weeks."

Kimberly lifted an eyebrow. "Would you have liked to explain to Sesshoumaru just why my miko powers were so depleted? He was pissy enough that I took off for a last visit home." Shippou nodded his understanding and then waved toward her friends, giving her a nudge to continue.

"Sort of," Kimberly said in answer to Adam's question. "I… I have holy powers, I guess is the best way to describe it." She met disbelieving looks with a nod. "Yeah, I know, I was like, 'This is totally bogus,' when Sesshoumaru told me but it's true." She held up a hand and willed pink power to her fingertips. "See? And it's like, my Power coin made them more powerful or something. Or easier to get to, I think; Kagome's more powerful than me but she can't concentrate it like I can."

"Kagome?" Billy parroted.

"Another friend of ours," Shippou answered. "Anyway, the wolf wanted to taint Kim's powers. He couldn't do it physically but if Kim had been raped, her frame of mind probably would have messed with her powers. They're notoriously emotional – the users have to _want_ to access the powers and really mean it for them to work well."

"Do you have those powers?" Tommy asked, venturing to speak for the first time.

'_It figures,'_ Kim thought peevishly. _'Nothing about what happened to me, but everything about the power… then again, isn't that what I wanted? To hurt him so badly that he'd stay away?'_ She just hadn't anticipated it working so well…

She nearly missed Shippou's snort of amusement. "Not at all. With those powers, Kim could kill me. Demons and miko – well, priestesses, I guess – don't really work well together traditionally."

"But you guys do," Rocky pointed out.

"Yeah. Lord Sesshoumaru has several humans with holy powers in his employ," Shippou confirmed. "They're good enforcers against demons breaking our law."

"Who the hell is this Sesshoumaru guy?" Jason demanded. "We keep hearing about him saving Kim but she doesn't seem too impressed by him."

"Sesshoumaru is an ass," Kimberly said flatly, much to Shippou's amusement. "Yeah, he saved me, and I was super-grateful. For like, a minute. Then he got all high and mighty on me. Said that since he saved me, I was _his_ now… I thought for a moment, he meant like the wolf wanted, but instead, he made me work for him."

"Doing what? Enforcing?" Trini asked.

"Sort of. I'm part of a group working to reassemble the Jewel of Four Souls. I came in after they beat the 'big bad' of sorts, but now this wolf has a lot of the shards and is in a major blood-feud with Sesshoumaru over them and about ten years ago, Kouga really escalated the battle by attacking Sesshoumaru's adopted daughter, Erin, and leaving her mangled body on his lawn."

"Over a jewel?" Haley asked in shock. "It has to be something powerful…"

"The Jewel of Four Souls grants wishes," Kimberly said almost robotically, as if reciting something she'd heard repeatedly. "It's a shiny jewel that looks like a pearl and holds the souls of a dead priestess and like, a billion demons she tried to kill in a big battle where they all died. She turned them into stone near a demon slayer's village in Japan. The slayers went underground when demons did a few centuries back but they always had the jewel in their possession. Supposedly, the right priestess would come along and make the right wish that would make the jewel disappear, because it's dangerous."

"Can't somebody just wish for world peace? Wouldn't that be a right wish?" Zack asked, toeing the line between funny and serious.

Kimberly shook her head. "I don't know, and I'm certainly not the right priestess. At least, I don't think I am, but Sesshoumaru's not letting me go until we know for sure. Anyway, so the slayers finally signed an agreement with Sesshoumaru, who is supposedly the Lord of all demon-kind because he kills them better than the rest of them do. And his dad was powerful and all that, but really, it's because he's probably the most lethal of them. Not that you'd know it," she said with a bit of rancor, "because now he sits on his ass and lets us do things for him and gets all pissy when we do it 'wrong' but noooo he won't come out and do anything-"

"You have lost the thread of your tale," Billy informed Kim.

"Oh. Sorry. Anyway, so the slayers worked with Sesshoumaru and he left Japan because it's freakin' small and he came here to America where it was a lot more open and free and wilderness-y and stuff. He met Zordon and supposedly challenged him – because challenging a floating head in a tube to a duel is a brilliant plan – but decided to come east anyway. He settled here and built up a lot of the companies here once people started moving in. The slayers followed him here and had the jewel. Sesshoumaru's brother, InuYasha, met up with his reincarnated lover and brought her here about 11 years ago. Somehow – she won't tell us _what she did_ – she broke the jewel. And now we're putting it back together and fighting with demons and evil humans for the shards."

All attention to Kim's story was interrupted as a muffled curse floated in on the wind from the patio.

Kimberly's eyes widened as Miroku stumbled in through the patio door, looking like something the cat dragged in. _'Technically, that's correct,'_ Kim thought with a smile as the clinking of claws on tile revealed Kirara's presence. _'Duh, Kim. How else was Miroku going to get this high up? He's not freakin' Spiderman.'_

"What happened?" she asked, rushing with to his side as Shippou went to divest Kirara of her collar. "What took you so long? Sesshoumaru's been waiting on your report all day and I can't go out tomorrow without it-"

"No need," Miroku sighed. "Well," he then amended, "Sesshoumaru will probably have you on surveillance rather than a hunt."

"Why?" Kimberly's eyes narrowed. "He's been after me to take down Daniel for weeks; he's only alive because he's been our in until the asshole turned traitor…" She trailed off, suddenly remembering where Miroku's mission had sent him that night. "He didn't."

"He did."

"_You_ didn't."

Miroku gulped but met her menacing glare bravely. "I did."

Mount Saint Hart blew its top; uncaring of the confused (or amused, in Shippou's case) faces behind her, Kimberly flew into a rage Sango and InuYasha often referred to as "legendary." Face red, arms flailing, her voice probably clear as a bell to people walking the beach so many floors down, Kimberly appeared far more deadly than her diminutive size would suggest.

"I can't believe it! He's been on my case about that damned iguana demon for _weeks_, Miroku! I sat through all his snarky-but-totally-calm-and-collected comments about me trusting Kouga's buddy before the bastard turned traitor on us and now I finally got the chance to prove myself… That was _my_ hunt, _my_ mark and you damn well knew it!" Miroku shrunk backward as his self-preservation instincts screamed for mercy. "Do you _like_ making me look incompetent to him? God DAMN it! NOW I'm going to have to put up with his holier-than-thou 'why didn't you just listen to me in the first place' looks and I can't even fight him on it because then Jaken will start squawking and I'll have to kick him and THEN Sesshoumaru will get EVEN MORE PISSY-"

"It's okay!" Miroku jumped in as Kimberly took a deep breath. The look on her face conveyed her belief that it was _not_, in fact, 'okay' in any way, shape or form. He hastened to reassure her. "He's actually in a _really_ good mood right now but we've got to keep him in it."

Kimberly looked suspiciously at Miroku – his eyes were sparkling with good humor, though fear still tinged his face. He knew something…

"I don't think I've _ever_ seen him in a good mood," she ventured, becoming aware again of her friends and knowing this could only be big news, which could only mean more explanations down the line…

"Kagura's alive."

Kim gaped, almost unable to grasp the concept. Miroku further went on to send her world spinning on its axis:

"Kouga has her _here_."

**Disclaimers:**

Anything from Power Rangers (and their affiliates) belongs to Saban and Disney. I don't have permission to use and abuse them as I plan on doing.

That being said, I don't own InuYasha and Company either. The "real" InuYasha belongs to the genius of Rumiko Takahashi (and Viz and all those other companies involved).

Sadly, I don't get money from any of this. Saban, Viz – you can try, but you wouldn't get much out of me in court.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

_In…_

_Out…_

Tommy forced his body into a series of spin-kicks, finally planting his raised foot and moving his arm to a block position before striking back with his other leg at an imagined foe.

His body flowed through the kata almost mindlessly; a blessing, as while he put himself through one of his most trying routines, echoes from the night before bounced around the inside of his head.

Where was his vaunted focus?

Gone – with her, just like it used to be… like it still was, he could admit when he was being honest with himself in the dark of night. _Kimberly_: one of his life's greatest mysteries. It haunted him, not knowing what had happened.

Now he knew… but there was no weight lifted off his shoulders.

_In…_

_Out…_

He couldn't master his thoughts, so he turned to mastering his body, his breathing – an illusion of composure when he was filled with anything but.

'_Raped.__She__was__nearly__raped,__and__I__wasn__'__t__there__to__stop__it.__'_ The Oliver guilt complex, nearly trademarked to hear his friends talk, was alive and well. _'__It__wasn__'__t__my__fault!__'_

Acknowledging it and believing it were two totally different things.

Trying to pull his thoughts away from that topic, Tommy tried to mesh his memories of his first love with what she had become. The almost Valley Girl-like persona she'd had when they first met had melted into a loving individual concerned about nearly everybody on an almost personal level. He could see that kindness in her eyes still, but it was tempered with horrors he could only imagine... things he didn't want to visualize her doing.

Like some of the high school students he taught, memories of the night before would not be contained, could not be silenced. Like Hayley finally drawing Kim's attention back from her tired friend and asking the question everybody had really wondered.

"_You've told us a lot but haven't given us very many answers. Why would you send Tommy that awful letter?"_

_Kimberly stared at Hayley, again a look of confusion coming over her face, and Tommy suddenly realized his former girlfriend would have no idea who was questioning her. It seemed Haley thought of the same thing._

"_Sorry, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Haley, Tommy's friend from college."_

_Kim's eyes zeroed in on Tommy in a disbelieving stare. He couldn't hold her gaze._

"_I didn't think Tommy would have talked about me all that much."_

"_Don't worry. You're not that popular of a topic," Hayley sniped back, drawing raised eyebrows from those who knew the redhead well; she hadn't often been one to lash out._

_Kimberly raised her chin defiantly. "Good. It was meant to be that way." She took a deep breath and finally admitted to her friends, "He would have killed you."_

Sesshoumaru – the _demon_ Kimberly worked for (was enslaved by, really, to go by her description) – had threatened to kill them all if she ran or spread the secret of demon-kind. She'd described in vivid detail the way he killed the demon who tried to attack her that fateful night…

With a grunt, Tommy let loose with a lethal combination of kicks and punches, twisting away from where the rising sun sparkled off the Atlantic Ocean.

Sesshoumaru would have killed them? Kimberly firmly believed it. Kimberly – who'd seen Tommy rampage through downtown Angel Grove with the Dragonzord – didn't think for a second the rangers would have stood against the demon's assault.

"_Rangers don't kill unless absolutely backed into a corner," Kimberly asserted. "Sesshoumaru…. he'd kill you before you found yourself in the corner."_

So she'd shut herself away from everything she knew and loved. Quit gymnastics, broken up with him in the most heart-wrenching way possible.

His half-hearted follow-up attempts at romance with Kimberly's successor in pink had been a diversion, had been his first sexual experience, had been everything a red-blooded young man could ask for. And yet, it wasn't what he'd wanted… he'd wanted _Kimberly_.

_Ready for the games… hardest letter I'll ever have to write… I've met somebody else… in some ways you're like a brother to me…_

The words still mocked him late at night.

Tommy spun, letting out the bitterness that festered deep, deep within his heart – right next to, or perhaps a part of, his feelings for the first Pink Ranger. His arm rose for a blow; he was caught off-guard and landed on his ass when it ricocheted off a forearm he knew nearly as well as his own.

"You okay, Bro?" Jason's eyebrows were raised; a silent acknowledgement that he knew his friend was anything but fine.

Tommy pushed his sweat-curled hair back. "Aw, man. I can't believe you caught me like that." He took Jason's hand and was tugged to his feet. Wiping the wet sand from his gi trousers, he let his breath go back to normal.

Jason was silent and waited for Tommy to meet his eyes again. The look on his face said it all.

Tommy tried to force a smirk and faltered, looking out over the ocean. "I'm…" another run of his hand through his hair – a sure sign of stress and upset. "Yeah, Jase," he said on an exhale. "I'm good."

"Spar with me?"

Tommy accepted the invitation with a bit of hesitation. He had no reason to say no; they hadn't gotten on the mats together in months, and while both kept physically fit, nothing matched the adrenaline rush of pushing himself and his friend to the limits. Sand would work well enough as a padding, and it was early enough that nobody would call the cops on a "fistfight" that was anything but.

But… sparring was also their way of letting go, of facing facts. It was how Tommy came to accept Jason's leaving high school to go to Switzerland, had been where Jason admitted for the first time he was attracted to Trini and where Tommy had made a similar acknowledgment about Kimberly.

Sparring, to them, was more of a chance to connect than drinking a beer and watching a game over hot wings. It was… brotherly.

The two bowed, and for a few minutes, the only sounds were seagulls, surf, and the smack of flesh on flesh as Tommy let Jason warm up slowly. Then Jason began to press the offensive, and Tommy knew the discussion was coming.

He ducked, lashed out with a leg that brought Jason to his ass on the sand. One point, Tommy.

Jason kicked back up to his feet in a smooth movement, on the offense again. Tommy backed away, tried to duck right to swing a fist into Jason's side but was blocked.

"So, Kimberly looks good."

Tommy's response was a grunt; like in the old days, his mind wandered at the thought of Kimberly, and Jason was able to bring his buddy to the ground. One point, Jason.

"You know, for fighting demons and stuff."

Tommy's renewed assault was brutal and Jason clamped his lips closed to avoid a mouthful of sand as the ground rushed up to meet him. Two points, Tommy.

A kick and a block; a flip and a twist with a flat-handed jab to the ribs. The two traded blows back and forth, moving up and down the stretch of beach. Tommy was oblivious to the occasional onlooker, losing himself in the fight, and letting – as always – his guilt and anger fuel him.

There was a good reason Rita Repulsa had chosen the brooding, loner new kid to be her evil green Ranger.

"God damn it," Tommy finally exploded, falling into a routine they'd established their freshman year of high school. "I don't know what to think anymore!"

'_Ah,__so__that__'__s__it.__'_ Jason had wondered how his best friend would handle these revelations. They were answers that he'd sought for years… but not ones he'd expected nor wanted to hear. Ever loyal, Jason jumped to Kimberly's defense. "She did it to protect us."

"But who was protecting her?" The question was fired rapidly, on the heels of a kick flip that _almost_ sent Jason tumbling.

The man in red pants righted himself and charged forward, using his sparring partner's backward momentum to throw him off-balance. "Her new friends? Her 'co-workers'? Either way, bro, she didn't need protecting. She was a Ranger and you know that."

"I should have been there for her. Why didn't she ask us – _me_ – for help? Or Zordon?"

Jason bent backward, twisting to the side as Tommy took advantage and swiped his feet out from under him again. They'd lost count of points; it didn't matter. It wasn't about wins or losses.

At least, not any more than usual.

"Zordon knew," Jason said through a wheeze; that lost fall had knocked the wind out of him. "You heard her."

Tommy leaned forward, hands on his knees, and panted. They'd gone at it harder than usual. He grumbled an acknowledgment, diverting his eyes. It rankled to know that their mentor… the man with all the answers, the one who knew just about everything… had known the truth, had been sworn to secrecy and kept that oath to his death.

Tommy's blood ran cold. Did Kimberly know about that? She had to have felt it, when the Red Space Ranger smashed Zordon's time warp, unleashing a purifying wave of particles through the galaxy. Every Ranger intimately connected to Zordon through the Morphin' Grid had felt it… she would have been no different.

He was shocked by the way his heart clenched; not the familiar feeling of loss even so many years later when he thought of Zordon, but at the thought of Kimberly grieving alone. That death had brought the Rangers back together again. Billy had teleported back from Aquitar. Katherine had flown in from London, where she had been studying ballet. They'd all gathered where it all began.

Kimberly had been conspicuous in her absence.

It was the first time Tommy had thought that perhaps Kimberly's disappearance was more than what it appeared to be.

And wasn't the last time he shoved such thoughts into the recesses of his mind, hoping his Swiss cheese-like memory would discard it with everything else.

Kimberly, he'd learned through the years, was like the Power: something he'd never forget, something he'd never escape – a part of him.

"Bro?"

Tommy was jerked from his thoughts by Jason, who'd clambered to his feet. "Huh?"

"I _said,_ 'do you wanna go get some food?' Rock was just down here, said Trini and 'Sha are making breakfast." Jason's look was one of understanding; Tommy still wasn't sure what he was feeling, and Jason accepted that.

"I'll be up in a moment. Gonna stretch out first, cool down a bit."

Emerald eyes watched the man in red walk into the building. What should have been mere specks were perfectly clear to demon senses. Shippou narrowed his sight on the man left on the beach. A white whirlwind of power circled him; his aura seethed with streaks of green, black and red.

Shippou studied the man's whirling aura carefully. Tommy was agitated, confused; Shippou wished he was closer so he could scent the human's emotions. Was Tommy angry? Sad? Preparing to lash out at Kimberly?

Shippou knew that letting Tommy go had been one of the most painful things Kim had experienced and the one thing she wished she could undo. Well, Tommy was here now, apparently single… and it appeared Kimberly's obligations to the Demon Lord were wrapping up.

A wicked, foxy grin spread over the demon's face.

OoO**OoO**OoO

The silence of the night in Japan was so different from what he was used to in Miami.

Kohaku closed his eyes as he sliced his finger, swiping the blood across a large, flat stone. Centuries of sunlight, rain and winds had eaten away at what was once an intricate stone carving; now, the rock that anchored his ancestral home's barrier was little more than a boulder, crumbling to sand.

Had Sango not given him a picture of what to look for, the young man would have passed his ancestral home without a second glance. As it was, picking the landmarks out through the dark had nearly led to broken bones. At the least, Kohaku wondered if his shins would ever be the same.

The smeared blood disappeared as the enchantment recognized him as a descendant of the city's many headmen; diluted though his blood had become over the ages. Like a computer monitor warming up, the dilapidated structures flickered and solidified, appearing out of thin air.

_'Whoever__laid__the__sealing__spell__must__have__been__powerful,__'_ Kohaku mused. _'Probably__a__descendant__of__Midoriko__herself.'_

Clutching his flashlight tightly, the young man clambered over fallen trees and scattered rocks and past the ditch that marked where a tall, wooden wall once stood proudly. His eyes swept the area for traps as he made his way toward the back of the ruins; it was not uncommon, his sister had informed him, for other slayers to protect their original city with clever pitfalls and other types of obstacles. Every so often, a descendant of the slayers, with no knowledge of their history, would be kidnapped by a rogue demon and brought to the area. If they got lucky and found the remains, their luck was sucked dry as the traps made short work of the presumptuous creature.

Kohaku's ruminations kept him occupied until he reached the vault. Hidden in one of the village's many caves, this was the only piece of the future to find a home in a city captured in time. Setting the flashlight on the ground, he tapped out the password quickly; at the same time, the hair on his neck began to stand on end.

Somebody was watching him; somebody had managed to follow him through the barrier before it solidified again.

For a moment, he was torn between confronting the intruder and slipping into the vault. If he did the former, he risked his follower gaining access to the slayers' library of information; the lock was disengaging as he pondered the possibilities. The information in the wrong hands could be deadly to the human race. He would be the first to admit he was not the strongest slayer... against the wrong opponent, he could be torn to shreds and who knew how long it would be before another descendant would find his remains - provided his predator left them there, untouched?

If he slipped into the vault, how was he to know when his watcher would disappear? He could get the information simply to be beheaded on the way out. There was a back way, but he wouldn't know the layout and it'd be treacherous in the dark…

_'Damn!'_

Kohaku was pulled from his debate by a snarl; whirling on his foot, he was barely able to bring his wakizashi up to block a blow. He was thankful he'd brought the smaller sword; he was too close to the wall to utilize his chain scythe.

"Filthy human!"

Kohaku cringed as he heard the lock click open; the wolf demon would have heard it clear as day. He centered himself in the middle of the corridor, resolving to keep the demon at bay or die trying.

Either seemed somewhat likely.

The demon - a young woman, it appeared - let out a howl, blue eyes sparkling unnaturally in the fake light. Kohaku cringed as the noise echoed off the wall painfully; he wondered how the demon could handle it with its better hearing. He evaded a slash of the demon's claws, swinging his sword in below to rake across her ribs. She muffled a whimper and he thought she might be young, on her first mission, like him.

"Stay back!" Kohaku ordered, following up with another sweep of his blade, this time angling back when halfway through the swing, spinning in a tight circle. Having misjudged the distance, he hissed through clenched teeth as the sword clanged against the iron door, sending sparks flying and reverberations up through his arm.

The demon snickered. "Too big to play here? Let me help - I'll remove an arm or two!"

Kohaku found his jaw clenched too tight to respond, unwillingly switching sword arms as his right continued to tingle, much like it had fallen asleep and then slammed against something solid. Thanking InuYasha mentally for drilling him on both hands, he ducked in low and stabbed at one of the wolf's vulnerable calves.

"I don't think so!" The female let out a bark of laughter, leaping up - to slam her head against the roof of the cave, hitting the ground with a muffled curse as bits of rock fell around her.

Kohaku bit down on the impulse to check if she was okay; he was a warrior today, not a doctor. Instead, he took another defensive position in front of the door. "Get out," he demanded. "Get out, and tell nobody of what you've seen or the slayers will find you!"

He cursed his rusty, American-accented Japanese as the wolf tilted her head in confusion. "Get out!" he repeated, this time following up with a jab toward her abdomen.

Gaining her feet with the speed possessed by all wolf demons, she snarled. "I'll be back, slayer!" With a whirlwind that nearly brought Kohaku to his knees coughing, she disappeared back out of the cave.

Kohaku sighed. There was no way to know if she'd lie in wait outside or not. He hadn't exactly made a good showing of himself as a slayer; she'd probably see him as an easy target when they were both in the open. Punching in the code once again, he slipped into the iron-walled library and locked the door. He'd take the back way out, and hope she didn't scent him.

OoO**OoO**OoO

"You're not focusing."

"You're not helping."

"I shouldn't have to help."

"Um, yeah? You should? Aren't you supposed to be my teacher in this?"

"Kim, you've been meditating with me for _years_. You can center yourself without me holding your hand."

Kimberly's posture slumped and her eyes opened, meeting the understanding look Miroku was gracing her with. "You were talking to me and distracting me," she pouted petulantly. "It wasn't helping."

Miroku lifted an eyebrow and Kim shifted under his knowing gaze. At a loss of what to do, she rose and sought a bottle of water from the mini-fridge in the corner of Miroku's study.

Silence reigned, filled with unanswered questions. Trying to escape the inevitable, Kim wandered to the window and opened the blinds. "Think Sango will be back soon?"

"She has been gone quite a while, hasn't she?" Miroku's response was nonchalant; it was clear he was less worried about Sango and more interested in discussing the events of the night before.

Kimberly wasn't biting.

"Kohaku's been gone a long freakin' time, too. It's pretty crappy of him not to call and let us know he's okay."

Miroku rolled his eyes, silently waiting for Kimberly to turn around.

She stamped her foot. "Say something!"

He shook his head. "What is there to say that you aren't already thinking?" He saw the flash of fear in her eyes and wondered at it. "I understand that you haven't seen them in a long time… but why are you so upset about it? I would think you'd be happy to see them, to reconcile."

Kimberly chewed on her bottom lip; a nervous habit Miroku had thought she'd outgrown in the years they'd spent together. He was about to push her again when she finally met his eyes. "He's different," she all but whispered. "They all are. And I am. I totally don't fit in with them anymore."

The idea was so ludicrous that Miroku found himself speechless for a moment. She stared at him, obviously hoping he would say or do _something_ to make everything okay again… like Jason had always done, like Tommy had done once he joined the team, even before they'd gotten together.

Miroku almost grinned ruefully. It was ridiculous how he knew almost more about Kimberly's love life nearly a decade ago than he did about his own relationship now.

"You _did_ notice that Tommy couldn't take his eyes off you for a moment? He was hanging his head, but every time you were looking away…" Miroku trailed off, encouraged by the glimmer of hope in her eyes. "It's not like he was wearing a ring. And if he had a girlfriend, wouldn't she be with him on this trip?"

"What are the odds that they'd show up _now_ of all times?" Kimberly asked, grasping a chance to change the topic. "I mean, when we're so close."

"Close to what?"

"The final showdown." At Miroku's dubious look, she elaborated, "I know it's coming… and like, soon. Don't ask me how I know. It's a Ranger thing; after a while, you just… know, ya know?"

Miroku shook his head. He _didn__'__t_ know, but he did trust her. Her instincts – be them in battle, in shopping, or in dealing with friends – were reliable 99-percent of the time.

He just hoped this prediction didn't fall into that final one percent.

OoO**OoO**OoO

"Girl, I don't even know what to think anymore!" Aisha laughed as her friend bobbed her head in agreement. They strolled down the beach happily – checking out scantily-clad, delicious men in the surf and just generally enjoying the beautiful weather.

And, of course, gossiping about the latest Kimberly/Tommy news.

The couple had been a staple in the Power Rangers' lives. They were the fairy-tale romance, the proof that there was a Happily Ever After. A white knight and his pink princess. Two people so tightly entwined mentally that they seemed to read each other's mind… and, quite often, entwined physically so that it was difficult to realize where one ended and the other began.

And, once they'd gotten their ninja powers, they'd had another connection – a connection of soul, the nearly irrefutable proof that the two belonged together: the Lord of the Skies and his lady. It'd nearly killed Kim to hand over those powers to Katherine. Of course, the accident beforehand had been just as bad. And Lord Zedd draining her of her life force had _also_ nearly killed the girl.

"'Sha?"

Aisha was pulled from her musings by Tanya's concerned look; she waved it off. "I'm fine." She wasn't sure Tanya would understand. Outside of the "Muranthias incident," Tanya had never seen Kim and Tommy together. And Katherine had been with Tommy at the time. Sure, her girl had been around for the break-up letter, and to see Tommy so upset had obviously shown they were close, but…

"Whatcha thinkin' about that's got you so tense, girlfriend? I know it ain't your man. And none of the guys here are enough to have you speechless!"

Aisha laughed, conceding the point. "You're right. I just… I wonder. I've always wondered where my girl was, and never did anything to hunt her down. I-I guess I'm feeling guilty, you know?"

"There wasn't anything you could have done," Tanya pointed out sensibly. "First off, you were in frickin' Africa. Not exactly easy to hop on a plane and visit Miami. Not to mention that it sounds like Kim probably would've pushed you away, anyway. It's what she did with us; well, with the guys, anyway. I know even Katherine wrote her after the letter and Kim never wrote back."

Aisha shrugged. She'd lived with Kim for a while when Kim's mother remarried and moved to Paris. They'd been like siblings… wasn't there anything she could have done?

"Don't blame yourself," Tanya advised. "You can't change the past, anyway. And you _know_ Tommy's beating himself up enough for all of us."

'Sha grinned. Of course he was. It was what Tommy did. He put the weight of the world on his shoulders – as muscular as they were, they couldn't hold the Earth.

The two lapsed into an easy-going silence, appreciating the sparkle of the ocean and the possibility of the renewal of a long-lapsed friendship (or, for Tanya, a chance to get to know the woman everybody had obviously adored).

It was no wonder they were caught off-guard.

"Ah, two of the yellow brats!"

Tanya let out a little shriek as a bird with a human face swooped down, nearly taking her head off her shoulders. She and Aisha hit the ground rolling, instinctively coming up in defensive postures. Taking a quick look around, Tanya realized the other people on the beach were being pecked at by a flock of normal-looking birds, chasing them away.

"The two of you will be a kick-ass donation to Kouga! I may even get a shard from the deal!" As the last of the beach-goers took off screaming, the bird shifted into a more human-esque form, though still retaining enough of his bird-like features to appear similar to creatures they'd battled as Rangers.

A quick look reassured the girls that the other was on the same page. They were gonna kick some ass – to hell with taking names.

"Looks like somebody needs to lay off the hair gel," Aisha shot at the bird-man, motioning to the feathery spikes that stood up atop his head. A little bit of childish, snarky banter was par for the course for Rangers: posturing, mocking, letting the creature know that it didn't intimidate them.

The bird-man (_'__A__demon,__like__the__one__the__boys__saw,__'_ Tanya's mind helpfully suggested) ignored the comment, moving forward in a run that was more like floating over the sand. Hands tipped in lethal talons reached out in a sweep, catching Tanya by her hair and slicing a chunk off.

"Oh no, you didn't!" she gasped as a couple braids hit the ground. She saw red. "Hi-yah!" A foot to the knee saw her break free – more out of the demon's surprise than actually causing him pain, she noted ruefully.

Aisha had sprung at him, only to hit the sand with a muffled thud as he moved faster than the eye could see. It was all she could do to roll out of the way as he leapt down toward her, face contorting disgustingly as a beak sprouted where his nose and mouth had been.

Tanya shouted again, gaining Aisha's attention; the birds had begun to dive-bomb the smaller woman, keeping her on her toes and hard-pressed to keep her balance in the shifting sands. Distracted, Aisha moved too slowly to avoid a diving bird and caught talons raking across her upper back. She let out a hiss, dropping to avoid a follow-up attack and kicking back at the bird demon, apparently the leader.

"Girl, I know you didn't forget your zeonizers," Aisha shouted over the screeching melee. "I can go ninja, but you-!"

Tanya frowned, though pride sparkled in her dark eyes as she nailed one of the birds in the beak. "I packed them just fine! They're… they're up in the bedroom," she managed to choke out between deep breaths.

"FOX FIRE!"

Teal bursts of fire turned into a wall of it, protectively circling the girls. The demon let out a screech of anger, only to be rained on by more of the burning mystical power.

"Are you girls okay?" A seagull landed beside them, transforming into a red-haired man with three long, luxurious tails poking out from above his ass. It was only when he turned his head that they realized this was Shippou… obviously not disguised as a human any longer.

Aisha and Tanya nodded, somewhat speechless at the amount of anger in his eyes – turning them as hard as gemstones.

"You know the edicts!" Shippou accused, pointing a clawed finger at the bird demon, who was anxiously patting the fire from his smoking feathers. "You'll be lucky if Lord Sesshoumaru doesn't show up to personally kick your ass from here to the freakin' moon!"

The bird hissed. "The time of Lord Sesshoumaru is ending! Demons will rise again!"

"Yeah, if you're stupid," Shippou shot back, a long sword materializing in his hand. "Get your feathery ass out of here or take me on, demon on demon. There's no honor in an unfair fight," he added with a hint of a sneer.

The bird scoffed, though feathers had begun to appear on his shrinking body. "Honor is for human-lovers like you; we have only a need for power." He took to the sky, the remaining members of his flock coming to flank him as he flew away, adding over his shoulder, "Don't think we won't be back! The colored freaks will be ours, and our power will grow again!"

Shippou let his guard down slowly, sniffing the wind and twitching pointed ears for any signs of a new attack. After a few moments, his features shifted to those they'd seen when they first met in the elevator; his tails disappeared and ears rounded as claws shrank.

As he changed, the blue fire encircling them melted away, leaving the sand around them completely untouched.

"That was amazing," Aisha said honestly. "Thanks for the save. I mean, we had it under control and all, but it was cool of you to help."

He shook his head. "Why didn't you morph? At least the guys had the sense to get some armor on!"

Tanya scowled. "I didn't exactly expect to be required to re-don my uniform, if you know what I mean! I'm in a different line of business now, thank you very much!"

Shippou leveled a stern look at them. "You _know_ the dangers here now, we told you about them last night. And you didn't think to bring whatever makes you a Ranger?"

"I didn't think they were comin' after _us_," Aisha shot back. "You said they were looking for parts of a rock!"

Tanya blinked. "Wait – didn't the demon say something about us being yellow? How would he know?" She glared over at Shippou, "I don't think I like our secret being, ya know, less than secret."

The fox demon shrugged. "It's in your aura. You guys are extremely powerful, you know… part of the Power, I guess. Anyway, most super-natural beings like demons can see auras, and a human's is usually a bunch of different colors. You guys have almost solid-colored ones… except for the few of you who changed colors."

Aisha muffled a snort. "So Tommy's is like every other human's? Since he's been nearly every Ranger color known to mankind?"

For once, Shippou wasn't the light-hearted guy they'd known him as previously. "His is mostly white, with hints of his other affiliations. But that makes him the largest target… he has the most power in his body. And I don't know why… but Kouga wants it."

He motioned back to the building, a long ways down the beach. "Come on, I'll walk you back. I think you guys should start keeping any power-thingy you guys have on you at all times. Until we figure out why, you should consider yourselves a target."

"Like that's anything new," Tanya muttered to Aisha as they strode up the sand.

It seemed as thought for a Ranger, things never changed.

OoO**OoO**OoO

Kagome sighed, mulling over the tiny glass vial of pink-tinged shards. Purple swirls, like smoke, seeped in occasionally, only to be overwhelmed by white fog.

The endless battle between right and wrong, good and evil, past and present… all represented in the pieces of a broken soul. Well, souls.

She absently wondered if Midoriko's soul had split into each of the shards that had flown around the world when she overcame the jewel. Did it pain the ancient priestess? _Could_ the woman feel pain? Did the darkness creeping into the shards she held signify they were losing the battle?

Kouga was strong, and lately had only been bestowing shards on his strongest and most trusted companions. Kagome had always prided herself on being optimistic, but what good could they really do?

A hand drifted over her protruding stomach. Her brother-in-law had been angry – well, that was putting it lightly. He'd been _pissed_ to find his most valuable miko out of commission for all intents and purposes. There was no use putting the child in danger; InuYasha's demon instincts wouldn't allow it.

The shattering of the jewel… Sesshoumaru saving and subsequently "kidnapping" Kimberly… the pregnancy…

"Change," she muttered, finally wrenching her eyes away from the shards and laying a small barrier over the jar. "It all comes down to change."

**Disclaimers:**

Anything from Power Rangers (and their affiliates) belongs to Saban and Disney. I don't have permission to use and abuse them as I plan on doing.

I don't own InuYasha and Company either. The "real" InuYasha belongs to the genius of Rumiko Takahashi (and Viz and all those other companies involved).


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Are you _okay_?" The look on Adam's face as the door opened to the two disheveled women and Shippou was immediately one of murder; he may have been "the soft-spoken one" but he was well-trained from a young age in various forms of martial arts… and his wife looked like she'd been through a small hurricane.

"Adam, I'm fine," Tanya hurried to reassure, wincing as she tried to tame her wild hair. "It's not as bad as it looks; I didn't even get a scratch."

"Aisha did," Rocky seethed, his easy-going attitude now buried under a layer of rage toward whatever had harmed his wife. "What the hell happened?"

Shippou looked up to see most of the rest of the group gathering in the living room; it looked like some were working on cooking lunch, others had just gotten out of the shower. He did a quick scan, counting heads and breathing a sigh of relief when he realized everybody was there.

"We have to talk."

The fun-loving Shippou the friends had met seemed to have been pushed to the wayside by whatever had happened – whatever had gone after the girls. The group looked to Jason and Tommy, who were exchanging looks, and only relaxed when they nodded agreement. "Let's all sit down."

It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop on the expensive carpet as everybody found a place to sit; Shippou found himself wondering if this was what it was like in the Command Center when the Rangers had been preparing for attacks.

"What _happened?"_ Rocky repeated himself, finally unable to control himself any longer. "'Sha and T go for a walk and come back looking like they were attacked!"

"We were," Aisha responded grimly, placing a placating hand on her husband's arm. "But we're fine! Shippou saved us – not that we really needed it," she felt required to add, "and he chased away the demon that came after us."

"Demon," Jason repeated softly. He turned to look at Shippou. "Like you? Or that thing you guys were fighting yesterday?"

Shippou shook his head. "No, a bird demon. One obviously working for Kouga."

"It disconcerts me that we are dealing with creatures that have never seemed to pursue us before. Perhaps it is because I've been on Aquitar, but surely my friends would have said something."

"Wouldn't they have come after us before?"

"Why now?"

"I was never even a Ranger!"

Billy's comment seemed to open up a can of worms for Shippou, who was now facing several angry adults wondering what had happened to change their lives so thoroughly.

He only wished he had a better answer.

"I don't know."

Shippou's flat answer actually shocked the Rangers into silence. Whether it was speaking with Zordon or his successor, Dimitra… Dulcea or Ninjor when it came to their ninja powers… or Shippou and Kim regarding their situations now, everybody seemed to have an answer for them.

It was disconcerting to be left with nothing.

"Well, that's not entirely true," Shippou admitted. He was hard-pressed to hide his smirk as the group visibly relaxed. "I have a good guess… but it sounds really stupid. I think it was just a matter of you guys being in the right places at the right time. Or in the wrong place right now," he added wryly.

Hayley tilted her head. "I don't understand."

Shippou shrugged. "Until now, all you guys were probably far away from Miami, right?" He was met with a chorus of nodding heads. "Demons are all around the world, and each area has its own generals and Lords and leaders and stuff. Sure, Sesshoumaru is kind of the big dog around the world, and Kouga is powerful because of the jewel shards. But I bet the demons near you guys just want to be left alone… or aren't willing to challenge your power for whatever reward Kouga's offering."

Tommy staring at his fists clenched over his knees. Could it really be that simple?

"Why does this Kouga want _us_?" Trini asked. "I'm sure it has to do something with being a Ranger… Jason, didn't you say-"

"Yeah, that crocodile demon called us 'colored brats,'" Jason said.

A smirk lifted the corner of Tanya's mouth. "We were called 'yellow brats' today."

"It's your auras, we think," Shippou interjected. "You were Power Rangers, and the Power never really leaves you… from what Kim says. It's hard to tell with her," he mused, suddenly distracted by this new train of thought. "Her aura is pink… but that's a common priestess color to begin with, so I wonder if that's how Sesshoumaru knew..." He trailed off, thinking a bit before being alerted to his digression by Zack's tapping foot.

"Sorry," Shippou said with a smile. "Anyway… you guys aren't normal humans. You guys have a lot of power visible in your auras; it's probably why you were chosen in the first place. You probably had a small amount of power anyway, but the zeo-thingies and power coins and stuff helped you harness it and made it stronger. That power's still with you – you just can't access it without help."

Hayley's eyes widened. "So this Kouga demon wants to try and harness it somehow? I can see how that would be dangerous… but what could he do with the power? And how would he get it?"

"Well, a lot of us have histories with being turned evil," Jason hypothesized, eyeing Tommy discretely.

From the way the longest-serving Ranger tensed, Jason could only assume Tommy was thinking along the same lines. But he was surprised when Tommy's voice muttered, "_He_ tried to…" He had to swallow. "Zedd nearly stripped Kim of her powers, remember? Of her life force, because that's what the ninja powers were connected to. She could have died." His voice almost cracked on the end of the sentence, but nobody was willing to bring it up.

Silence fell over the group. None of the possibilities looked good.

Shippou shifted, feeling as though he was intruding as the Rangers recalled the various instances they were turned against their friends and loved ones. Sadly, it wasn't a short list.

"Anyway," he said, to draw their attention. "I don't know what Kouga could do. I don't know what he _plans_ to do… or how he plans to do it. We have some recon looking into it. Hell, for all we know, he could be looking at you as bait… Kim would go the distance to keep you guys safe. But until we find out, you guys need to be careful. When you go out, make sure you have whatever will help you morph. Let us know where you're going… I'll make sure you have our cell numbers." Shippou removed his phone from his pocket and rattled off a few numbers, giving the Rangers a couple people to call should the need arise, and gathering phone numbers for the group.

Almost on cue, Shippou's phone rang: Kim, but he hadn't expected a call from her so early today. Maybe just checking in with how her friends were settling in?

"I have to get going, guys," Shippou said. "Have fun… but be careful." He grinned. "You guys are Rangers, so act like it."

"Aw, man!"

Shippou turned to stare at Zack in confusion. "What?"

"It's just… it was supposed to be a vacation, ya know? And we come down and find ourselves in a whole lot of trouble all over again." Zack shot a mock-glare at Tommy. "Then again, I guess you've proof positive that ex-Rangers never really leave the Ranger-danger days behind."

Tommy shrugged, face suspiciously blank – it was rare for him not to rise to a dig at his on-going Ranger days. Standing behind Tommy, Jason shrugged at Zack; if Tommy was going to brood like usual, they'd have to let him get it out of his system.

Shippou noted the byplay between the guys carefully before drawing their attention back. "You guys can still have loads of fun," Shippou said. "It sure doesn't stop us from having a blast. Well, usually. We just… we're ready to blast back, if necessary." He grinned at Jason. "Just think of it like your Ranger days!"

The fox demon wandered over to the door, dipping into a fun little bow to Hayley, who stood by it, before letting himself out. He paused halfway through the doorway, just long enough to shout over his shoulder, "Hey! At least it'll probably give you some time with Kim … right?"

OoO**OoO**OoO

As she reached speeds far beyond the legal limit, whipping her motorcycle around vehicles in a way that she knew she would bitch anybody out for were she behind the wheel of her car, Kimberly was unaware of the pain shooting up her injured arm. All that existed were the other cars, the road in front of her…

And the thoughts she just could not outrun.

'_Attacked! Just walking down the beach! Kouga means business… but why? What the hell? There's no way to harness the power that they have! Hell, most of it is dormant… except for the Zeo Rangers; I hear they never lost the Power. There's the Ninja powers, I guess, but there's still no way to siphon that energy like Zedd did mine, unless–'_

Kimberly was jerked from her musings by the car in front of her slamming on his brakes. She swerved to the right, creatively cursing out the man's lack of driving skills and receiving a single-fingered salute for her efforts. She snorted.

A slight trickling sensation by her wrist informed Kim that her arm had begun bleeding again. _'Damn demonic power.'_ Not for the first time – nor the last, she expected – she wished for the days of magic spandex and giant robots.

Kouga may have been lightning fast and stronger than dozens of men, but even he couldn't survive a squishing from a skyscraper-sized metal Tyrannosaurus.

She giggled helplessly at the mental image.

'_If only life were that easy!'_ And things were just going to get harder, Kimberly was sure. If their enemies were targeting the Rangers like Shippou had said, she was going to stretch herself thin; hunting leads for the remaining jewel shards and protecting the ones they had took up a decent chunk of her time, and she was loathe to give up the few luxuries she afforded herself – like her weekly sojourn to the various malls across South Florida.

She'd beat a sense of fashion besides "practical" into Sango if it killed her, she swore.

Then again, there was no reason for her to forgo her shopping trips. Aisha and Trini had always gone with her; both were married (it still rankled she had missed the weddings – _'Damn Sesshoumaru!'_) and she'd bet the guys would tag along, now that they were aware of the myriad dangers they faced.

What was she worried about? They were_ Rangers._ They had dealt with intergalactic beings bent on enslaving the world while simultaneously juggling martial arts, clubs of all sorts, organizing and taking part in charity events, and passing algebra!

'_But they've never dealt with demons.'_ These weren't creatures looking to conquer a planet. They weren't monsters that looked like they'd stepped out of the latest B-movie flick on the Sci-Fi channel, taking orders from crazy people from the moon. These demons – Kouga's allies – were bloodthirsty, hungry for the taste of human flesh. Many were clever and thought up their own schemes. They wanted nothing more than to wipe out the "inferior" species and experience the joy of the hunt without fearing retribution from Generals like Sesshoumaru and slayers like Sango, or even human-lovers like InuYasha and Shippou.

Kimberly's belief still stood: the Rangers could take care of themselves, but they didn't kill unless absolutely backed into a corner.

'_Well… that's not gonna happen on my watch.'_

OoO**OoO**OoO

Sango sighed, stretching out cramped muscles as she stepped out of the shower. "No rest for the weary," she murmured as she snagged a towel to wipe the condensation off the mirror.

After a several-hour-long session trailing one of Kouga's known operatives, she'd come home to find Miroku bemusedly watching Kimberly pace a trail into their new carpeting. Kim had gotten a phone call from Kagome; the priestess wanted Kimberly to take her part of the jewel and keep it safe. Kouga's lackeys had been talking about going after the young woman for a while now – the wolf had been enamored of her pre-incarnation, and seemed to have similar, somewhat-obsessive feelings for this version of the soul.

Kagome was scared and even though she had InuYasha, she didn't want another reason for the wolf leader to come after her.

Kimberly couldn't deny her friend the chance to keep her unborn child safe – but she didn't want to take on the responsibility of keeping the jewel shards purified, much less secure from Kouga, especially when she spent so much time in the field.

So that had been a "fun" hour-long discussion over the various pros and cons. In the end, Kimberly had decided to take the shards – provided Miroku help her keep them secure. That settled, Kimberly called Shippou to update him… only to find out that her friends had been attacked on the beach.

That opened up a whole new slew of problems. Kimberly was taking on the shards and now they had to set up a system to protect her friends from harm. They had to figure out just what Kouga was planning on doing with the ex-Rangers if he managed to get his claws into them.

And they were being forced to recognize that the battle between the factions of demons had just undergone a very important transformation: Kouga was making moves in public. At the very least, he was making offers that had less-important demons flouting Sesshoumaru's edicts against displaying demon powers in front of uninvolved humans.

Sesshoumaru would not be amused. They weren't, either; it meant extra work trying to keep things on the down-low while still trying to protect innocent people.

Sango sighed. One step forward, six steps back. And now as one of the few remaining descendants of the original slayers who protected the jewel, she believed the burden fell to her to shoulders.

'_Damn!'_

Kimberly had gone to take care of a few things; they had finally agreed to go out that night for a bit of fun. Nothing like pushing troubles to the wayside for a couple hours to help them relax – and better focus in the long-run.

Sango spun and slumped against the counter.

On top of everything else, nobody had heard from Kohaku since he'd left on his information-gathering excursion to Japan. Sango hadn't wanted to bring it up with Kimberly so obviously overwhelmed by everything happening at once; her friend hadn't mentioned it, but she was clearly still upset about having to face Tommy not once but twice already… and it appeared they'd be spending a decent amount of time with the ex-Rangers in the coming days.

But Kohaku hovered in the back of Sango's mind. The young man was a decent enough slayer, though he was gentle, and Sango had no doubts he was smart enough to make his way to their ancestral home without too much trouble.

Still, she'd feel better if he'd call!

"Sango?" Miroku knocked tentatively on the door, bringing her out of her whirlwind of thoughts.

"Yeah?" She tightened the towel around her body. They'd finally moved in together, and had even taken the step to sleeping together… but she was still somewhat uncomfortable with him seeing her naked. Kim thought it was silly of her but who was she to judge? "Come on in," she invited once she was satisfied that she was properly covered.

Miroku's smile seemed to falter when he realized the love of his life was more-or-less decent. Still, he let it slide, putting the cover down and taking a seat on the toilet as he watched her dry and style her hair.

"Are you alright?"

Sango froze for a moment, arm at an awkward angle as she tried to detangle the hairs at the nape of her neck. She forced a smile after a moment. "I'll be okay."

Miroku frowned. "I didn't ask if you would be okay. I asked if you _are_ alright. As in _now_."

"I'm worried."

She didn't have to elaborate. "I know," Miroku acknowledged. "He'll call as soon as he can, you know." He stood and removed her hairbrush from her hand, trailing his fingers up her bare arms to knead her shoulders. "You're tense."

She let out a contented sigh and dropped her head backward, reveling in the light massage. "I know. And you're right. But that doesn't stop me worrying."

"Of course it doesn't." He kissed the sensitive spot where her neck met her right shoulder. "You're his sister. I'd be concerned if you _weren't_ worried."

"And poor Kimberly," Sango went on as Miroku slipped his arms around her, caressing her sides in an almost ticklish sensation.

"She's a nervous wreck," Miroku noted. "I've never really seen her like that before." His hands began to slip under the towel. "It's only going to get worse before it gets better, I think."

Sango moaned appreciatively as one hand cupped a breast, squeezing just right… She'd begun to lose the thread of their conversation as his hands had begun to wander.

Miroku grinned, recognizing this fact.

"Why don't we," he whispered softly, running his other hand lightly up and down her stomach, "take a little time to ourselves for now. I don't think we'll get much of it in the near future."

She spun and silenced him with a kiss.

OoO**OoO**OoO

"I won't let him hurt you."

Kagome turned around, smiling softly at her husband. They'd married young, and she hadn't dated much in school – she was too busy focusing on her schoolwork. She'd had her share of suitors, but nobody had called to her like InuYasha did.

After only three months of knowing each other, she'd packed up and moved around the world with him. She'd reconnected with friends from another life (_that_ had been an interesting discussion) and had inadvertently turned the underground world of demons upside-down by unleashing a powerful force upon the world.

Now, it was all she could do to waddle up the stairs to their small shrine, where pieces of the sacred jewel lay behind a small barrier.

"I know."

She turned back to stare at the shards pensively, her smile slipping. She felt more than heard InuYasha come up behind her. "I swear I won't let anybody hurt you. My bastard of a brother included," InuYasha said as he wrapped his arms around her, resting his hands on her stomach.

Kagome slipped her hands over his and squeezed. "I know," she repeated. "I trust you."

"Then why have the wench come get the shards?"

She sighed. "I'd just feel safer if they were with her," she admitted. "And… I-I'm afraid of hurting the baby. He or she is part-demon… and I have to use a lot of power to keep them pure. I don't want to accidentally purify the baby."

InuYasha nodded in agreement before resting his chin on the top of her head. "I guess that makes sense. I don't like it, though."

"Neither does Sesshoumaru."

InuYasha scowled. Of course Sesshoumaru didn't like it. He was of the opinion that Sesshoumaru didn't like _anything_. "He'll just have to deal with it. But why her?"

"What other priestesses do we know and trust?" Kagome asked logically. InuYasha let out a frustrated noise.

"She ain't gonna be focused; not with her friends around. That's all I need is more late-night phone calls begging me to come save her sorry ass."

"Oh, I don't know," Kagome said softly, "I think having them around will force her to be even more on her guard. Plus she'll have her friends to keep her safe."

"Keh!"

Kagome smiled at his irritated outburst. "You just don't want her to have them because she's around Kouga and his pack so much."

"Yeah, so? I don't want to chase these things all around the world again. Been there, done that. You turned the t-shirt I woulda gotten into rags."

Kagome's eyes welled with tears. "Well excuse me for living!"

"That ain't what I meant!" The jewel's re-shattering was a sore spot with his wife and InuYasha cursed having brought it up at all. He was about to change the subject when the doorbell rang.

Repeatedly.

InuYasha's ears flattened and he cursed. "That girl _knows_ that thing fucks with my ears!"

Kagome had to bite back a laugh. Of course she did. That's why Kimberly did it. Kim couldn't fight her station – not with Sesshoumaru having saved her, and especially not when she knew what Sesshoumaru and even InuYasha (given the right impetus) could do to her and her friends.

So she retaliated in _different_ ways.

Kagome pulled out of InuYasha's grasp, turned him by the shoulders and pushed him to the door. "Go bring her up here." When he hesitated, she patted him on the butt, smiling. "Or I'll have to go down and then back up all those stairs…"

He got a move on, glaring at her nonetheless. _'Sneaky wench.'_

Minutes later, Kim sauntered up the stairs, a smirk on her face.

"Do I even want to know what has you so happy?"

Kim shook her head. "Probably better if you don't. Let's get a move on; I have things to do and people to see."

Kagome smiled. "Okay. Let's see if we can't combine our powers to merge them into one large piece." Kimberly pulled out the few shards she carried around. "It'll be easier to keep an eye on 'em that way."

"And easier for Kouga to get his hands on them," Kim muttered rebelliously. She bit her tongue when Kagome shot her an apologetic look. "No, 'Gome, I understand why you're doing this and it makes sense." She forced a small smile. "It doesn't mean I have to like it, though."

Kagome tilted her head from side to side, humming. "I can understand that."

"Let's do this. We'll merge 'em and see if we can't get a small barrier around it. No reason for me to go advertising what I'll have around my neck."

OoO**OoO**OoO

Despite Zack's concerns, Shippou had been more than happy to point them in the direction of a fun time that night when they asked for suggestions.

"_Just keep your morpher-things on you. You don't know when you'll need them," Shippou said. "Hey, why don't I give you guys a ride to a great club-restaurant-like place? A lot of my human friends love it there."_

Aisha, Rocky, Trini, Jason and Zack had all jumped at the opportunity. Billy and Hayley elected to stay behind and go to sleep early; Tanya had chosen to avoid the crowds – she had already dealt with a mob for autographs that day and wanted to have a quiet night on the beach with Adam.

"You guys have enough for a taxi for the trip back?" Shippou asked as he pulled up. "It's easier to drop you off here than find a parking space. If you guys can't catch a cab, call me and I'll come pick you up. Traffic's a bitch here though, so give me some warning."

"You're not coming with?" Rocky asked, a bit disappointed.

"I can't stand the music – too loud," Shippou elaborated. "Most demons avoid clubs and the like because of the lights and smells and noises. It's overwhelming."

"So that's why you suggested we go here," Jason pointed out dryly. Shippou grinned, unrepentant, as he sped off.

"Now this is what I'm talkin' about!" Zack proclaimed, waving happily at Shippou as the demon drove off into the night. "Ladies, music and letting the liquor flow!" Music poured onto the street from the building as they made their way to the line to get in. The place and the street out front was packed.

The group made some small talk while waiting, enjoying the humid breeze coming off the ocean. Finally slipping into the building after acknowledging that they'd just relax near the bar rather than wait for an actual table, Aisha and Trini immediately started shaking their hips to the beat. Being early in the evening, it wasn't nearly as hard as they expected to find a group heading out ahead of the crush of people.

"It'll be fine," Zack claimed. "They'll just think the table's still taken!"

Tommy rolled his eyes but didn't feel like standing around any longer. With a shrug, he slipped into the booth and took a look around. The place was adorned with a mural of undersea life and beach-life; knick-knacks of fish and mermaids and boaters cluttered the walls. The two sides of the building were raised up - one had an actual restaurant set-up; the other side, where they were sitting, had a bar and a mass of stools, tables and booths. In the center was an already-packed dance floor and Tommy cringed at the thought of wading into the mass of people.

He wasn't the best dancer in the world and didn't quite feel like advertising that fact.

He was drawn by the flash of flesh as a waitress jumped up onto the platform that served as the DJ booth and began gyrating to the music. Apparently this was a common phenomenon– everybody on the dance floor simply cheered before going back to their respective partners.

Jason took drink orders before heading to the bar; Tommy watched Aisha drag Rocky out to the dance floor with a look of commiseration for his friend. Zack followed a few feet behind, eyes scanning the crowd for a gorgeous Miami woman to dance with, completely in his element as the music throbbed.

Tommy rubbed his temple, waiting for his body to adjust to the club-like atmosphere. _'No wonder Shippou said demons couldn't stand the music. If they have the hearing he was talking about, his head would probably explode here.'_

Jason was almost knocked into Tommy as he bent over to pass the first few drinks along. Heading back, Jason grabbed the pitcher of beer with a nod of thanks, snagging plastic cups with his free hand.

His mouth moved, obviously trying to tell Tommy something, but was completely drowned out by the cheers of the women on the dance floor as the next song started.

_I never really knew that she could dance like this  
She makes a man wants to speak Spanish  
Como se llama, bonita,  
mi casa, su casa_

_Oh baby when you talk like that  
You make a woman go mad  
So be wise and keep on  
Reading the signs of my body_

"Damn, I hate this song," Tommy muttered.

Jason laughed. "Good thing we have plenty of ways to drown your hatred for the music."

Slipping onto the plastic bench, Jason slung his arm around his wife. "I got us some appetizers," he said.

"Good idea," Trini complimented. "Keep the alcohol from rushing to our heads."

Tommy nodded, eyes skimming the crowd for Rocky. His red-clad friend would be glad to know food was on the way. It was hard to find him, despite the red-head's height, and Tommy found himself narrowing his eyes to try and make out faces through the smoke.

A flash of blonde-streaked auburn hair caught his eye almost like a billboard and his heart found its way to his throat. "Hey-"

Trini looked up at her friend's choked comment. Seeing that Tommy wasn't about to finish the statement, she followed his wide-eyed gaze to the dance floor.

OoO**OoO**OoO

Music pulsed, lights flickered and smoke turned the normally ocean-scented breeze into a filmy haze.

And Kimberly loved every second of it.

She laughed along with the crowd as the next song began, backing into Sango as her friend began to let her inhibitions slide. Miroku grinned lecherously as the two began to dance back-to-back, having fun giving him quite the show.

_I'm on tonight  
You know my hips don't lie  
And I'm starting to feel it's right  
All the attraction, the tension  
Don't you see baby, this is perfection_

Kim loved it when they could let loose a little bit. Sango'd been really upset about not hearing from her younger brother; she couldn't fault the slayer, Kim was worried too. But they needed to relax – hell, as far as she was concerned, Kim needed a night of stiff drinks and good music.

If only that nagging tingle in the back of her head would go away. There were no demons here. It was pretty much a demon-free zone; the scents and sounds did a lot to keep them at bay. Besides, if any were nearby, it wouldn't be a tickle on her aura. She'd feel it; her hackles would be up. Miroku would feel it, too. They were fine. Kimberly convinced herself she was looking too deeply into it. The tingle was probably the great feeling of alcohol dampening her worries; she hadn't felt it in a long time!

_Hey Girl, I can see your body moving  
And it's driving me crazy  
And I didn't have the slightest idea  
Until I saw you dancing_

_And when you walk up on the dance floor  
Nobody cannot ignore  
the way you move your body, girl  
And everything so unexpected  
the way you right and left it  
So you can keep on shaking it  
_

Finally moving away from Sango, Kim dipped and spun, swinging her hair behind her and dipping low to the ground. Forced to give up competitive gymnastics by the irascible demon lord, she'd learned rather quickly that she'd have no problem staying in shape – fighting and running kept her on her toes much like back in her Ranger days.

Kim rose and spun again, arms in the air. Closing her eyes for a moment, she swung her arms back – and inadvertently dug one into a person's side.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she turned to apologize to her unintended victim before gasping. "Rocky?"

"Kim?" Beside him, a dark-skinned woman turned.

"'Sha?"

Aisha squealed and launched herself at her long-time friend. "Hey girl! What're you doin' here?"

Seeing Kim was semi-speechless (a rare occurrence that seemed to be happening more often, much to her displeasure), Sango stepped in. "Probably the same thing you are," she said with a smile. "Taking a night off!"

Kim's eyes drifted back to Rocky, who'd turned his head to the bar area. She followed his gaze curiously – and her eyes met with a chocolate-eyed stare.

Tommy looked as surprised as she felt.

_I'm on tonight  
You know my hips don't lie  
And I am starting to feel you boy  
Come on let's go, real slow  
Don't you see baby, asi es perfecto_

_Oh I know I'm on tonight  
My hips don't lie  
And I'm starting to feel it's right  
All the attraction, the tension  
Don't you see baby, this is perfection_

"Oh damn it, Shippou," Kim muttered mutinously, shooting a dark look at Miroku, who at least had the grace to cringe.

Fucking set-ups.

OoO**OoO**OoO

Trini stared at Kim from the table. As the Ranger-turned-demon-slayer danced and laughed with Zack, her eyes continuously flickered to where Tommy sat at the bar nursing a drink – and trying to hide his own interested looks, especially when Kim swiveled to face the other direction. Trini smothered a laugh.

"Do you believe in soul-mates?"

Trini looked up at the woman, Kim's friend...

"Sorry, I'm Sango. You're Trini, right?"

Trini nodded with a smile and held out her hand. They shook, introduced themselves and easily fell into friendly chatter, recognizing the role each had played in Kimberly's life. They'd been speaking for about half an hour when Sango brought up her original question.

"Do you believe in soul-mates?"

Trini smiled. "I think… maybe? I don't know. I do believe there's a person out there for everybody, but I don't know if it's on the same realm as soul mates."

Sango smiled. "I know what you mean." Her eyes traveled to where Tommy sat silently… and followed his line of sight to where Kimberly danced with Aisha and Zack. "I didn't, at first," she added.

Trini looked intrigued and Sango continued. "Reincarnation and stuff, either. I thought it was stuff that only happens in sappy romance novels. It's all really weird until it happens to you. I never believed in soul mates until I found out I have one of my own. Apparently, the gods or powers that be or whatever decided that I belong with Miroku – no matter who we are or where or when we are. We're always meant to be together. And I thought it was stupid and corny, and still do sometimes. But then I see him," she motioned to Tommy, "and I wonder if that's why Kim was always so… squeal-y around Miroku and me when we first got together. I wonder if we looked like that."

Trini's eyes lit up. "Kimberly's always been easily excited but you should have seen her the first time she saw Tommy. She couldn't take her eyes off him. I'd never really believed in love at first sight but for them…"

She trailed off and Sango nodded. "Kim's afraid he's still mad at her," she confided.

"I'm sure he might be," Trini acknowledged. "But he's probably more confused than anything. For almost a decade he's thought she abandoned him, maybe even cheated. Now, though-"

"He has to come to terms with the fact that the letter was a lie," Sango finished Trini's thought easily. "I don't know him at all… except for Kim's stories, I mean. If anything, knowing the truth was probably a blow to his pride."

Trini nodded, Jason agreeing silently as he sat next to her.

Sango stared at the dark-haired man at the bar, wondering if Kagome's suggestion was all that reasonable.

Hey, Kagome was happily married, right? So she'd know a thing or two about romance.

"Maybe he just needs a push in the right direction?" Sango got up the nerve to suggest. This wasn't her area of expertise in any way, shape or form… but she felt like she owed it to the former Ranger to fix what Sesshoumaru had callously smashed so many years ago.

"I was just thinking the same thing," Aisha said under her breath, slipping into the seat next to Sango, having given up dancing and obviously having heard the last bit of the conversation.

OoO**OoO**OoO

Just an hour later, Tommy was wondering how he'd fallen for their trap so easily.

The Ranger men had learned quickly that the women in a pack were formidable. Like most women, they didn't seem to need to talk to plan things. Rocky had often been heard saying that women were really telepathic, and they just talked aloud to give the illusion that they weren't.

While Tommy discounted the theory entirely, he had to give Rocky a bit of a break – living by that theory, Rocky was never caught off-guard by his wife's scheming ways.

Which meant that more than likely, Rocky was in on it, too. All of them were, come to think of it. It wouldn't have been such a smooth system if everybody hadn't been conspiring against him, he thought.

Of course, as he bent his head and buried his face in auburn hair he'd only seen in his dreams for the past ten years, he couldn't bring himself to be too upset.

_Watch my life,  
Pass me by,  
In the rear view mirror  
Pictures frozen in time  
Are becoming clearer  
I don't wanna waste another day  
Stuck in the shadow of my mistakes_

Oh, it had started innocently enough. Aisha had asked him to dance, and he'd had just the right number of drinks to have forgotten his previous wariness of the dance floor. Jason had partnered Kimberly while Trini and Rocky sat out. Those two had begun dancing the next song; Rocky partnered a somewhat-reluctant Sango in a move that had Tommy confused. Trini had easily coaxed Kim's guy friend – what was his name? Miroku? – onto the dance floor; the two had fun dancing and discussing philosophy (once she had proven to him that she could incapacitate him in two moves or less – he kept his hands from wandering without fail after the first attempt).

_Cause I want you,  
And I feel you,  
Crawling underneath my skin  
Like a hunger,  
Like a burning,  
To find a place I've never been  
_

The song had changed again and so had the partners. It seemed like the Rangers and Kim's two friends were switching on and off each song.

Occasionally he'd catch a glimpse of a smirk or hear a chuckle from behind him.

Something was up.

_Now I'm broken,  
And I'm faded,  
I'm half the man I thought I would be.  
But you can have what's left of me_

It wasn't until a slow song focusing on regrets and mistakes came along that he found himself without a partner – as Kim found herself, as well. On top of everything, a veritable wall of friends danced between them and their table. Either they'd have to shove their way through and be rude… or they'd have to dance.

They'd eyed each other warily. Some emotion played in Kimberly's eyes, and if it had been ten years ago, Tommy swore he would have known exactly what she was thinking.

Of course, a decade will do that to even people who'd been the closest of friends.

_I've been dying inside,  
little by little.  
Nowhere to go,  
__I'm goin' outta my mind  
An endless circle_

Tommy, not wanting to cause a scene, went with the second scenario and grabbed her hand – only, of course, after squashing the voice in the back of his head that shouted how she'd broken his heart, tap-danced on his pride and left him high and dry; she'd _lied_ to him and hadn't trusted that he could help her when she needed it most.

Now Kimberly was entwined in his embrace. The two had begun dancing almost like strangers. Halfway through the song, they were nearly as close as they'd often gotten as teenagers.

God, he missed those days.

_Fallin' faster  
barely breathing  
Give me somethin to believe in  
Tell me it's not all in my head_

_'Such an appropriate song,'_ Tommy thought vaguely. He'd heard the teenage girls in his class listening to it before the bell rang – it'd often conjured up thoughts of Kim.

He blew out a huff of air, ruffling Kim's bangs as the song came to a close. There was nothing he wanted more than to stay there, clutching her to him, reveling in closeness he'd never appreciated as much in anybody else, clothed or otherwise…

And yet that voice in the back of his head told him to step back, to let go.

He could do that. After all, they'd made a little headway. They hadn't really spoken, but their relationship hadn't been one that required a whole lot of words to begin with. A glance at Kim's face as she pulled away found similar thoughts reflected in her eyes.

Grinning at the result of his friends' planning, he slipped his arm around Kim's shoulder and guided her to the table – where everybody had retreated to, mission accomplished. They were greeted with cat-calls and smiles but retaliated in turn, falling into an easy circle of friends and acquaintances as Miroku and Sango grew more familiar with the group.

From across the room, ocean-colored eyes narrowed on the men and women laughing and chatting.

The humans – stupid as they were – had let down their guard, cocky in their belief that demons wouldn't make a move in such a crowded location.

Kouga grinned, a fang slipping down over his lower lip. It was time to remind the Big Dog's hunters why they should fear him.

**Disclaimers:**

Anything from Power Rangers (and their affiliates) belongs to Saban and Disney. I don't have permission to use and abuse them as I plan on doing.

I don't own InuYasha and Company either. The "real" InuYasha belongs to the genius of Rumiko Takahashi (and Viz and all those other companies involved).

"Hips Don't Lie" belongs to Shakira (with a nod toward Wyclef Jean) and Epic Records.

"What's Left Of Me" is property of Nick Lachey and Jive Records.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Kimberly had just ordered her third drink when all hell broke loose.

The tingle that had tickled at the back of her head all night had eventually been muted by her skill at ignoring things she didn't care to pay attention to and the alcohol she'd indulged in. Nonetheless, it hadn't diminished… and in a heartbeat, it exploded into a full throb of sharp pain. Holy power with more than a tinge of darkness washed over her like a tidal wave. She threw up her arm, relying on instinct developed over three years at the Pink Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger to somehow _pull_ power from the jewel shards that hung at her breastbone, creating a weak barrier around where she and her friends were sitting.

That thin wall of protection was torn to shreds a second later by a burst of demonic power; the dark, pulsing aura of tainted jewel shards sent people untouched by The Power out the doors in a fearful frenzy punctuated by snarls and screams.

The group of slayers and former Rangers rose, pushing against the tide of people to face what Jason could only describe as… not nearly as frightening as he'd expected: three barely-clad men standing in front of the booths on the restaurant area of the place, one with ocean-blue eyes glaring fiercely at Kim, Miroku and Sango. The two others flanked him; one looked a bit nervous to see so many people standing against them and the other wouldn't meet anybody's eye.

For somebody used to golden, armored, winged monkeys and rubbery-looking monsters, to face off against creatures that looked so very _human_ was disconcerting.

Kim, however, paid no attention to the trio. She glowered up at the young woman who stepped from behind the men to stand next to them, a haughty smile on her face. Tommy noted that she had a strange glow about her; her hair was oddly silver – too pale to be a bleached blonde, but actually white, like the half-demon he'd met the day before.

"Tsubaki!" Kim all but snarled, finger pointed at the woman angrily. "What the hell are you doing working with them?"

"Fastest way to the jewel shards," the woman responded lightly, completely at ease in the face of the shorter woman's anger. She threw her arms wide and her eye began to glow… before low-level demons began streaming from it.

"That is _completely_ disgusting," Rocky commented with a grimace.

Aisha nodded. "Forget disgusting – that's just sick and wrong. I don't even want to guess where they're coming from…"

"She has a shard," Kim said under her breath to Miroku and Sango. "We have to get it from her."

As though the two groups had been working together for ages, they'd backed into a circle. Sango and Miroku stood shoulder-to-shoulder; through habit apparently undiminished by ten years of distance, Kimberly found herself sandwiched between Tommy and Jason and rolled her eyes.

'_Men.'_

"Hand over the shards, Kimmy," the blue-eyed demon shouted cockily over the growing sounds of snarling, hissing, and cawing – low-level demons were filling the building.

"Go chase a car, Kouga," was her snappy retort, punctuated with a grunt as she kicked away the first of Tsubaki's minions.

As the number of demons crammed into the building multiplied, mayhem broke loose. Kimberly shoved her way between the distracted, protective men to face the woman; a white snake coiled around her shoulders before lunging forward, snapping its fangs at Kimberly. She ducked and spun, pulling a short sword from her knee-high boots and grinning in satisfaction as the blade began to glow pink with purity.

"Oh, looks like little Kimmy got a power boost," Tsubaki snarled, waving her arm and watching as a mass of her minions swarmed toward the former Ranger.

Kim began to cleave her way through the attack with the ease of one who'd done it for years, eyes rarely leaving the woman's form. Dust swirled around her, carried by the windy power emanating from her hands and sword; it was all that remained of the demons vaporized by the holy power surrounding the sword. "It's amazing what happens when you have more shards than anybody else. Looks like you took a major turn to the dark side," she commented over the sounds of battle.

Tsubaki shrugged. "A woman does what she needs to in order to stay looking beautiful." A discontented frown stole over her face as an unsightly, scale-like scar glistened over her eye for a moment – a clear signal to Kimberly that the dark priestess' demons were being slain at a faster rate than she could support it; they were drawing on her strength rather than the other way around.

'_Okay, having the Rangers here has its advantages,'_ she noted wryly as she quickly leapt up to the raised area. Perhaps Sesshoumaru would spare her the lecture when he learned _humans_ had interfered in the battle.

"Oh jeez, are you going on about that stupid scar? You know what does wonders? Cover Girl. You don't even have to make a pact with demons; you can just walk to the store!"

Tsubaki rolled her eyes. "Like you'd understand? What if I said they could make your chest better? Are those boobs or bug bites?"

Kim growled inarticulately as she reached out and snagged Tsubaki's hand, bringing her arm up and around as though to use her as a shield against the demons on the dance floor –

-forgetting to take into account the woman's familiar. The snake hissed, coiling itself around Kimberly's arm and sending her into a squealing whirl, sword forgotten, shrieking, "Oh, ewwww, gross! Get it off!"

"InuYasha said to watch out for the snake!"

Kim nearly paused in her rush to remove the snake from her body, managing to spit out a, "Thanks for nothing!" at Miroku.

Said holy man was standing next to Sango, a collapsible staff clutched in his hand. He cursed loudly; the large number of demons in the building made it difficult to do much of anything with his weapon of choice. He didn't want to accidentally smack Sango with it. He finally tossed it, frustrated, at a short wolf demon with a white Mohawk. The demon leapt over it and began half-heartedly trading blows with the man, backing Miroku into Sango.

"How did we manage to miss the fact that they were here?" Sango asked, striking out with her leg at Kouga's other right-hand man, a striped-haired wolf demon named Hakkaku. She booted him in the face and he let out a whine, clutching his bleeding nose with both hands and leaving himself open for a follow-up knee to the stomach.

"Barrier?" Miroku suggested light-heartedly. "Had to be, or Kim would have felt the jewel shard. Maybe it damped the sounds and smells for our hyper-sensitive friends here," he added.

"Ginta! Hakkaku! Get me those colored kids," Kouga commanded from his perch on one of the restaurant tables. He snarled a toothy grin at Miroku and Sango. "I have a bone to pick with you two… and a message for you to bring to your weak-ass master."

"The only thing I'm bringing him is your hide," Sango snarled. It had been several years since Kouga had led the attack that caused her father's death, but the pain echoed in her chest every time the demon smirked at her. She'd wipe that cocky grin off his face if it was the last thing she did!

The image of her father's bloodied body in the back of her mind, Sango jumped up the steps and rushed the wolf demon, eyes ablaze with a need for revenge. He met her bloodthirsty stare with one of his own: she'd taken down too many of his pack over the years to be forgiven her sins.

Sango reveled in the thrill of the hunt; she took a perverse pleasure in Kouga's anger as he realized his demonic speed would be of little use in such a tight space, especially with the center of the room packed with low-level demons.

The wolf demon with the rapidly-healing bloody nose turned his efforts to Miroku, who seemed to be handling Ginta with little effort. As the holy man spun to engage the new enemy, Ginta melted into the mess of demons.

"I _hate_ hand-to-hand combat," Miroku complained as he barely dodged a swipe of his opponent's claws. He snagged a piece of paper from his pocket and, with a short chant, tossed it at Hakakku. The demon yelped and slapped at it, whining loudly as the flames burnt at his hand, too.

From next to him, Jason grunted. "It's not so hard. Wish I had a weapon, though."

"It's a little tight in here for that, don't you think?" Trini pointed out. "You'd put us in as much danger as these things are."

"Holy shit! Look at Kim!" Rocky hollered over the sounds of battle, taking a moment to eye his former teammates. It'd been so long since he'd been in a real fight; adrenaline rushed through him, followed by a surge of testosterone as he slammed his foot into the side of a demon intent on taking Aisha down from behind.

Tommy and Jason had immediately spun to eye their short friend at Rocky's comment – and found themselves staring. The girl was wreathed in pink – Tommy was uncomfortably reminded of how she'd looked when kidnapped by Lord Zedd, his machine slowly siphoning her power and very life-force…

Worse, there was no clear route to her. The fact that she seemed to be holding her own against the white-haired woman with the weird foreign name meant nothing; he doubled his efforts to mow down the stupid bug-like creatures separating him from her.

Kimberly had finally gotten herself under control, realizing that her stupid "get it off me" dance was not only really interfering with the whole "get the jewel shard" plan, but also leaving her open for attack by Tsubaki, whose priestess powers rivaled her own.

Not a good combination, really.

Kim had snatched her sword back up, managing to shrug off the snake and slice at it before backpedaling away; it hissed ominously and stretched, growing and snapping at her.

"Having problems, Kimmy?" Tsubaki was incredibly amused at seeing the usually deadly slayer on the run.

"I _hate_ that nickname," Kimberly shot back, not taking her eyes off the creature. InuYasha had warned her of previous run-ins with the priestess; should the snake get a bit of her blood, she'd be done for.

Or at least turned evil, turned against her friends and probably forced to kill people she loved.

So probably worse than death, no matter how many times she and her friends had faced similar – if slightly less deadly – situations as Rangers.

As the familiar sprang forward again, Kimberly scooted backward… and her back slammed against the wall. _'Shit! Cornered!'_

Next to her, Sango was taking advantage of the space freed by Tsubaki closing in on Kim. She'd snagged a table leg from the ground – the weight was rather similar to her bone boomerang, so it felt comfortable in her hands. She only wished she'd brought a couple of her scent bombs; on the other hand, Kim's friends didn't have masks, and theirs were on the other side of the room, anyway.

Sango cried out as one of Kouga's swipes made contact, drawing a long bloody gash across her shoulder when she spun; she followed it up by clocking him upside the temple with the makeshift weapon. Demon or not, the blow was enough to stun him for a moment. Pushing the pain to the back of her mind, she repeated the motion.

Sure, it was fighting dirty. Sure, it was probably dishonorable.

As far as Sango was concerned, "honor" at that moment could take a long walk of a short pier. "Revenge" was far more satisfying – as was the _thunk_ of the wood slamming into Kouga's head.

On the rapidly-thinning dance floor, Miroku ducked away from Hakakku's kick and twisted back up, copying a kick Jason had used, using the wolf's momentum to send him flying. Miroku winced, certain he had pulled a muscle attempting that maneuver. Taking a breather for a moment, Miroku checked in with Kimberly's friends. He was most impressed to see Zack dancing as he struck out at various creatures. The grin on the man's face was… almost amusing, really. He seemed to be having a blast, despite the strange situation.

He found he had to remind himself that Kimberly's friends had grown up in weird circumstances.

"Can't you guys turn into ninjas or something?"

Rocky nailed a weirdly-shaped demon in the head, smiling with satisfaction as it dissolved into dust. These was more like it – the lackeys disappeared, like his early Ranger days! "Actually, I think the proper plural for that is 'ninja.'"

"Boy, I love you, but this is no time for a vocabulary lesson!" Aisha shouted, hitting the ground as another demon slammed into her back.

"Less banter, more butt-kicking!" Tommy snapped.

"Actually," Miroku grunted as he barely avoided Hakakku's outstretched claws as the wolf leapt back into the fray, "I think Rocky's right." He groaned again as his muscle protested the movement. "All the same… don't you guys have powers or something?"

"Not all of us," Trini corrected. She straightened a moment, taking a breather as the demons were picked up one by one. Jason demolished the last demon within arm's reach and happily turned to face Hakakku. He was exhilarated; this was the best fight he'd had in years.

Trini turned a concerned look on Miroku, who seemed rather uncomfortable. He waved her aside when she knelt to check his leg. "Aren't you worried about your husband?"

"He can handle himself. Are you worried about Sango?"

Miroku grinned wryly. "Are you kidding? I'm worried about anybody stupid enough to get in between her and Kouga."

Both were distracted from their conversation by a shriek; they turned to see Kim on the floor, hands around the snake near the head. She writhed, finally pinning it to the wall with her foot above her head in a move only a gymnast could pull off comfortably.

"Bite her head off!" Tsubaki urged the demon puppet, who tried to wriggle free of Kim's hold.

Kim reached out with her arm, flailing in an attempt to grasp her sword. She distantly heard her friends shouting – _heard Tommy shouting_ – and ignored it. She had a choice: her sword or the snake.

Taking a gamble, she rolled and snagged her weapon. She faced the snake, no time to get off the floor, as it leapt toward her; willing holy power up her arm, Kim swiped the sword under it and flung it in the air, like a chef with a spatula would a pancake.

The demon puppet flew… and struck Tsubaki right in the eye.

Even Kouga and Sango stopped their fight as Tsubaki let out a shrill cry. Kouga and Hakakku whimpered and covered their ears; Rocky suddenly wondered where the third wolf demon had disappeared to. Had they killed him? The demons seemed to turn to dust…

"Sango! Now!"

"Let's get him!" Miroku suggested, waving the former Rangers at Kouga. Hakakku looked to be down for the count, laid out by one of Jason's many karate moves. The Rangers had proven themselves good enough in a fight – Miroku knew Kim would deal with Sesshoumaru's wrath later.

At Kim's call, Sango abandoned her fight with Kouga, throwing herself at the screeching dark priestess and tackling her to the ground. Tsubaki writhed – half in pain, half in an effort to free herself – but Sango had not been on her high school football team for nothing.

Barely noticing as her friends tackled Kouga, Kimberly followed Sango in going after Tsubaki. Once Sango had the woman pinned, face-to-floor, Kim took up a steak knife that had somehow been jammed into the floor; somewhere in the back of her mind, she was thankful that somehow, it appeared they'd missed the worst of the scattered utensils on the floor. Her shorts were probably ruined, though, from rolling around in discarded food.

'_Ugh, _so_ gross!'_

"Girl, this is gonna hurt you a _lot_ more than it's gonna hurt me," Kimberly informed Tsubaki as she lowered the blade to the woman's shoulder. Tsubaki put her all into attempting to escape; Sango was nearly thrown from her before the slayer slammed her fist into the side of the woman's face, pushing it back into the wooden floor.

"I've been wanting to do that a long time," Sango admitted.

"I'm jealous," Kimberly responded dryly. "Got her this time? I'd like to not cut my fingers off."

"Go for it."

Rocky and Aisha watched in shock as Kimberly bit her lip and stabbed the knife just above the white-haired woman's shoulder blade. Tsubaki screamed as Kim levered the knife; with a sickening _pop_, what looked like a bit of purple sparkly rock flew from the wound.

Kim caught it; she and Sango jumped clear of their victim as she rolled over and aged in seconds, right before their eyes. Tsubaki found herself too weak to get up and was left cursing Kimberly and her friends before she faded into dust.

Kim closed her eyes as Miroku said a prayer. She turned to see Kouga had fled – and red and blue lights were beginning to flash on the walls.

'_Shit. Lord Stick-up-his-ass is going to have a hernia if this ends up on TV.'_

Her friends stared at her silently as Kimberly directed Miroku out front; they had enough "friends" in the various police forces that she was sure he'd get them to discreetly back off the scene.

She and Sango herded the Rangers out the back doors, ducking in the tiny alley as a news truck pulled up nearby. They waited until a little blonde reporter had gotten out of the truck, cameraman behind her, and took off.

"My bike's in the parking garage," Kim told Sango. "Call Shippou and take them back to the condo; I'm going to have to do some damage control."

"I'm coming with you," Tommy insisted, pushing through his friends to tower over Kim in an attempt to – to what, he wasn't certain. She'd never had a problem taking his orders before, but that was a different Kimberly, it seemed.

"Yeah, right," Kim scoffed, confirming Tommy's suspicions and bringing a dark look to his face. "Sesshoumaru will slice you, dice you, and have his little asshole toad serve you for lunch. You're expendable; I'm not." She went to shove past him and couldn't help but whimper a bit as he grabbed her arm, pushing down on what would probably be a spectacular bruise in a couple hours. He released her just as quickly as he'd snagged her, going a bit white.

Hurting her – no matter _what_ the circumstances – had always filled him with guilt.

Jason put his hand on his best friend's shoulder, tugging him back. Kim flashed him a thankful look, acknowledging with it that she knew it wasn't over and knew she'd catch hell for it later, and took off down the street, shouting, "I'll see you guys tomorrow if I can," over her shoulder.

As Sango called them a ride, Jason all but dragged a seething Tommy over to the rest of their group.

"I don't like it either, bro, but Kim's gotta do what she's gotta do."

"I just wish she'd trust us," Aisha murmured. Sango watched the rest of the ex-Rangers nod. She wasn't one to interfere, normally, but she felt bad for the young woman who had been forced to alienate her friends.

"It's not about trust," Sango said, placing her hand on Aisha's shoulder. She winced as her wound made itself known, but forged on. "It's about protecting you… wouldn't you do the same in her shoes?"

OoO**OoO**OoO

Kohaku sighed quietly, rubbing the back of his neck. He hated flying. Well, not so much flying, but the enclosed space of an airplane. The recycled air, the stale smell of too many people in too small of a space –

Worse, he'd been flight-hopping, which was hell on his inner ear. Stupid lack of direct flights from Tokyo to Cairo. Then again, he figured, it probably wasn't all that common of a trip.

Trying to distract himself from his discomfort, Kohaku pulled out his notebook and maps. He'd land in South Africa and crash there to catch up on sleep – he could never sleep on planes, frustratingly enough – and then meet up with his Lord's African contact.

That man… Kohaku flipped through his pictures, trying to remember who he was supposed to meet. A leopard half-demon, if he remembered correctly.

Kohaku was anxious for this particular leg of the journey. The leopard would take him south, through Sudan, and into Ethiopia. There, he'd meet with his hosts – a large family of elephant demons that went back several centuries, known to have great information on the jewel.

The young man really wasn't looking forward to the journey.

'_For never having left the country, I'm certainly getting in my travel experience now,'_ Kohaku thought sardonically. Then again, he was the best choice to do this research; nobody else with knowledge of the jewel's history could be spared from the ongoing battles.

Kohaku skimmed through the list of things he'd need to pick up once he reached Egypt. He scowled as he reached the last part; where was he supposed to get such a large amount of sugar cane? Was this supposed to be an offering of some sort? It'd been added with sloppy handwriting – not Sesshoumaru's elegant cursive or Sesshoumaru's retainer's chicken-scratch. _'So probably not something Sesshoumaru ordered.'_

Kohaku rapidly reviewed the possibilities. He was supposed to call to check in once he made contact with the family at the Elephant Reserve. It'd make him look unsure of himself if he called to confirm directions, but what other options did he have? Sesshoumaru would be more displeased if he went in and disgraced the "House of the West" with horrible manners and lacking a gift if one was expected. Was he supposed to use his own money – his college fund was all he had left – to pick up this particular expense?

Who would have suggested such a thing, anyway?

Kohaku sighed and knocked his head against the padded seat. He had some friends at the Miami Zoo who might have some answers; apparently he'd have to make some phone calls before crawling into bed.

OoO**OoO**OoO

"-no surveillance video to speak of… strange, as the club recently released video showing a suspected killer leaving their property. When asked about the discrepancy, both the club owner and the Police Chief refused to comment. With only eyewitness accounts to go by, we're left to wonder what leads – if any – the police are looking into. We'll continue to follow this story. Reporting live from South Beach, I'm-"

The television flicked off with a hiss that would have made lesser demons cringe.

Not him, of course. He was _above_ such irritants.

Kim leveled a glare across the room, lifting her chin defiantly at the man – no, demon – who held her life in the grasp of his thin and deadly fingers.

"I trust this won't happen again." A command, not a request; a threat, really.

She tapped her foot, refusing to respond. In a battle of wills, she always lost – just barely – but that didn't stop her from trying. She was faced with a decision: levity or sarcasm. Both tended to piss him off… then again, anything less than absolute deference tended to provoke the same response.

She was a former Ranger, damn it. She had traveled to different planets, different dimensions, and held the Great Power – the power of the Ninjetti. She now protected the pure shards of the Sacred Jewel of Four Souls. She was having an _awesome_ hair day. She bowed to _nobody_.

When Kim didn't respond, Sesshoumaru allowed the corners of his mouth to twitch up slightly. Kim narrowed her eyes at him.

Whenever Sesshoumaru came close to almost smiling, it never boded well for her.

The pompous demon pulled out a second remote from his desk. With the touch of a button, black and white video began to play on the television of the wall.

It was pure pandemonium, and it took Kim a few moments to realize what she was seeing.

'_Oh, God. That's us at from last night!'_ She watched in horror as Kouga and his lackeys appeared out of nowhere – confirming her suspicions that they'd been behind a barrier. She winced as they exchanged words before breaking into a battle.

Okay, she grinned a bit when she saw Sango going to town on Kouga with a table leg.

Kimberly watched with the detachment (or the illusion of) one could only gain after assessing themselves time after time on a viewing globe. The guys had often gone over battles with her, showing what she could have done better or worse, or how she could have used her surroundings to her advantage.

In the back of her mind, she wondered what Sesshoumaru gained by showing her this. She also wondered how he'd gotten his hands on the-

The dog demon paused the tape.

Kimberly had been snatching the jewel shard out of the air, Tsubaki at her feet.

'_Shit.'_

"I gained this footage from the monk," Sesshoumaru informed her, his face a mask. Kim cursed Miroku and began plotting revenge for not warning her. "He was able to get it from the county sheriff."

Kim remained silent.

"I'm certain you're aware of what catches my attention?"

"We gained another jewel shard? Tsubaki is gone? Kouga might actually have a concussion today? Yay for us!"

Sesshoumaru stared holes in her. "It is apparent that you are exuding far more power than one more shard would account for."

Kim winced. She'd forgotten, somehow, about the wards on this study. Ancient artifacts at each entry dissolved barriers magically. Ones with evil intent backfired on the beholders. "Yeah, well… about that…"

"Remove the jewel and display your progress."

She tugged at the chunk of magical jewelry around her neck, pulling it very carefully over her immaculate hairstyle. Rather reluctantly, she held out her hand, palm up, and opened her fingers.

There sat about 75-percent of the Jewel of Four Souls.

Sesshoumaru's eyes flashed red and a wind picked up around him, scattering papers and causing Kim to throw her hands up in an attempt to shield her face.

After a moment, he mastered himself. "_Why_ do you have the entirety of our work?"

She chose to avoid the question, as dangerous as it was. "'Our work'? You haven't done shit to get this; it's all-" Kim closed her mouth quickly as a sub-sonic growl caused the hair on the back of her neck to rise.

"Okay, Kagome gave me her half of what we've got," she let out in a hurry. "She's pregnant and you know that and it's dangerous for her to have the shards when any demon could just go in and attack her for it and it could be dangerous for their kid because of the power she uses to keep them pure. We don't know but we don't want to find out the hard way."

"You will _never_ be alone again while that much power is in your possession."

Kimberly twitched as though slapped. "I wasn't alone last night and look what happened! I just endangered more people!"

"You _will not_ be alone, and you will _not_ be caught off-guard again."

"Who are you to tell me-"

Sesshoumaru actually took a moment to raise his voice above hers, "I am your employer. I am the reason you are alive today. I hold your life and power in my own until I choose to relinquish it. That will not happen until the jewel is gone and Kagura is safe in my home again."

Kimberly warred with herself on making further comment… and chose to change the topic.

"Good, then that means I can spend time with my friends? As you can imagine," she added dryly, "they have plenty of questions."

"Do as you wish, so long as it does not jeopardize your mission."

"Sir, just being alive jeopardizes it."

"Too much attitude and too little focus will have deadly consequences, and not just for yourself."

Kimberly stared, uncertain if he was suggesting what he might be.

"The former Rangers are powerful," he hinted, staring at her unblinkingly. The possibilities were implicit; they were also another reminder of the shackles that had kept her under his heel for far too long for her liking.

She called his bluff with a snort. "You wouldn't give them to Kouga, and he wouldn't know what to do with them once he got them."

Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow. "I do not hand out power I can use for myself, as your attendance here attests."

Angry at the threat and the reminders he seemed to revel in, Kim allowed a bit of pure power to cloak her hands. She'd never hit him – the fight wouldn't even last as long as her taking a swing, no matter what she wished – and he knew that as well as her. But it was a nice, nonverbal way of expressing her displeasure while causing him the most minor of discomforts in the prickle of holy power against his demonic aura.

The demon lord allowed a small chuckle to escape him; there was no humor in his eyes, and she knew he was pushing her buttons, but that didn't make her any less frustrated. "Your reactions show a lack of control; I was under the impression that your past associations frowned on such a course of action."

She snapped at the slight against her history as a Ranger. "Will you just stop it!" It was phrased neither as a question nor a request; it was an order, and by the way Sesshoumaru's eyes widened minutely, Kimberly knew she had finally crossed the line. That fact was underscored by the stench of burnt skin and the raking pain that hissed up her arm…

It was only a moment after he retracted it that Kim realized he'd used his energy whip on her.

She gaped, clutching her arm tightly and letting the power swirling on top of her skin coat the widest part of the wound. It sizzled against the little poison he'd let escape, like cold water on a hot grill, before it began neutralizing the burn.

Kim was speechless. She hadn't goaded him so far in years, and since then she'd been more impudent than that. Something had happened to push him over the edge; she wasn't sure what, but she wasn't sticking around to find out… not in her current frame of mind.

If she acted on the thoughts racing through her brain, she'd be dead in less than ten minutes.

Turning her back on her Lord – knowing the move, no matter how stupid, suggested she didn't find him a true threat – Kim began to stride from the room.

"Kimberly." The no-nonsense tone (not that he ever resorted to nonsense) stopped Kim in her tracks; the use of her name rather than a derogatory comment about her heritage stunned her.

She tilted her head over her shoulder, refusing to let the tears from the still-stinging burn on her arm show, though she knew he could smell them. "Yes, m'lord?" she questioned sarcastically.

"Finish it."

OoO**OoO**OoO

"Relax, man," Rocky said with a jab to Tommy's ribs. "Ship-dip said she'd be here later. It's not later yet!"

Tommy laid flat on his back on a towel, eyes closed. It didn't hide the dark look on his face – the one that hadn't left since Kim had left them the night before. "Rocko, knock it off."

Rocky frowned. "Hey, don't take your being angry out on us."

Sitting up, Tommy sighed at the wounded tone in Rocky's voice. "You're right… sorry, man, but I'm really not in the mood, you know?"

Rocky nodded. "Makes sense. Wanna talk about what's got you so upset?"

"It isn't obvious?"

"Well, it is, but 'Sha says sometimes talking about it helps anyway. And you can talk to me. Trini and Jase and most of the others are too excited that she's here to really let you vent without trying to talk you out of it," he pointed out.

Tommy shrugged. "Not now. Thanks, though," he added, trying to soothe his harsh attitude.

He didn't want to be mad at Rocky. He was mad at Kim. He was… okay, if he had to be honest, he was mad at himself. There was no reason to be angry with Kim; she'd explained everything and things were beyond her control. It was… it was like becoming a Ranger. Except that they'd been able to share that.

Caught in that thought, he wondered if Kim knew about his latest stint in spandex.

Spandex. Tight clothing – his mind flashed quickly to the outfit he'd first seen Kim in. It was just as tight as her Ranger uniform, but less pink, and no skirt. Instead, silver highlighted each of her very feminine curves; Kimberly had always bemoaned her figure (or, as she put it, her lack of one) but Tommy had been more than pleased.

He was _still_ more than pleased, if the reaction he just could not control was to be trusted.

'_Damn it!'_

Shippou plopped down next to him, startling Tommy from his thoughts.

"Still mad?"

Tommy blinked, not sure how this demon, who'd only known him a couple days at most, could read him so easily.

"It's in your aura," Shippou told him. When Tommy gave him another blank stare, Shippou grinned. "Your moods. They come out in your aura. That's how I knew why you were confused, too."

"For a few moments, I thought you were reading my mind," Tommy admitted lowly.

Shippou grinned. "Nope. Just been around the block a century or two. After a while, you learn to read humans pretty easily."

The two fell silent for a moment. Shippou waited; Tommy obviously had questions he wanted to ask. He'd heard him deny Rocky conversation, but sometimes it was easier to talk to somebody not so close to you.

"Why… did she really think we couldn't handle things? Back when this all started?"

"Tommy, Sesshoumaru once leveled human armies and cities without batting an eye."

"So did a lot of the monsters we fought."

"That's different and you know it. Zordon was a good man… well, a good floating-head-in-a-tube alien guy. Remember, he knew about Kim's situation and didn't say anything. Can't you think of why? This wasn't Ranger-related."

It made sense, but was hell for Tommy to process. She stung his pride with that letter. She bruised his pride again by saying he couldn't have helped her. She did it a third time the night before, when she'd refused him staying with her, choosing to go into a potentially dangerous situation alone.

It had been almost ten years; why was she still getting to him so badly?

Tommy was about to ask Shippou about his experiences in his years on Earth – _anything_ to distract him from the dark thoughts still bouncing around in his head regarding Kimberly – when a whistle drew their attention.

Shippou waved at Miroku and Sango, who were dressed to hit the water. Miroku carried a cooler, nodding at Jason, Zack, Trini and Aisha as they played a game of volleyball.

"Kim here yet?" Sango asked, laying out her beach blanket next to the one Tommy was reclined on. She looked back and waved at a few of Kim's friends she recognized from pictures who were relaxing in the pool rather than face the waves.

Tommy shook his head. He opened his mouth to ask Miroku how the night before had gone with the cops when a shrill voice cut through the air-

"I ought to _kill you_!" A blur of pink and tan tackled Miroku to the stand. Kim straddled him angrily, one hand on his chest, one hand pulled back in a fist.

A fist that Sango caught quickly. "Kimberly, _please_ don't mutilate my fiancé. I like his face that way."

"He _deserves_ it," Kim seethed, but lowered her arm with a quiet hiss. "Do you know he gave his royal asshole-ness the tape from the club last night?"

Sango gaped, first at Kim and then at her fiancé, who wriggled on the ground in the face of two very angry, very dangerous women.

"I didn't mean to!" he defended himself. "But it was the only way to get the cops to back off! I had to hit up the demon cops and explain that it was related to Sesshoumaru and that he'd have their heads if anything was exposed and they said fine but that I'd have to bring the tape to him and they'd call to follow up," he babbled.

Kim glowered. "Miroku, you are a modern day con-man. You know exactly what to say in every situation. You couldn't lie?"

"He knows when I'm lying!"

Kim sighed, acknowledging the truth in that statement. Slowly she levered himself off of him, crawling over to Sango's blanket and flopping, belly-first, onto it to bury her face with a groan.

"This sucks!"

"What happened to your arm?" Zack asked, having come over from his attempts at wooing some of the beautiful sunbathing ladies at the sight of Kim nearly pummeling her friend. He reached out to touch it and gaped when it glowed green. "Whoa, you should get that looked at."

"It's fine," Kim muttered. "I'll fix it in a minute."

Tommy stared. Unabashedly. Kim wore the skimpiest pink bikini he had ever seen; he wondered if it would be legal anywhere but the beach.

He was finally pulled from his thoughts (all involving removing those particular garments… he didn't make casual sex a habit, but hey, angry sex was good, too) by a swat to the back of the head.

"Knock it off," Jason hissed, dropping to the ground after assuring himself that Kim would take care of her injury. "You're not dating her, so you don't need to be thinking those thoughts."

"I'm not-" Tommy attempted half-heartedly to argue. Jason glared, not buying it. They'd known each other far too long to be able to hide things like openly drooling over a woman.

Great, just what Tommy needed. Jason in over-protective brother mode.

Some things never changed.

"What happened?" Aisha asked, helping Kim sit up without jostling her arm too badly. "That don't look natural."

"It's not," Kim sighed. "It was caused by me pushing a few too many buttons today, and aggravated by rather illegal moments on my bike on the way here." She grasped an invisible ball around her neck, tugging the jewel up and over again and removing its barrier.

The way she held it reminded her friends of the reverence of her power coin back in the day.

Shippou stared in wonder as Kim somehow began to _pull_ pink energy from the broken sphere. It wound its way up her arm, settling into the wound. It healed over quickly, without a trace, in the same time it'd take for him to heal.

"How did you do that?" he breathed. "I've seen several priestesses with the jewel but I don't think any of them did that."

Kim shrugged, looking at her friends. "It's really similar to a power coin, or the Ninjetti power. I dunno, it's instinct, I guess. I saw it heal that turtle demon I fought years ago and figured if it could do that for them, it could do it for me."

Miroku and Sango nodded slowly. Sango had seen it before, occasionally, but hadn't registered the significance; she figured if Kim could do it, any priestess could.

"Anyway, what else did your master-dude have to say?" Rocky asked, plopping down near the group as the rest of their friends wandered over.

Kim rolled her eyes. "I'm mouthy; I shouldn't have all the jewel. He's mad at Kagome. Blah, blah, blah."

She fell silent and Miroku grinned. "You're leaving something out."

"Am not."

"Are, too!"

"Am not!"

"Are, too!"

"Am-"

"What did his lord and master say?" Rocky prodded again. "C'mon, don't keep us in suspense."

Kim avoided Tommy's eyes, looking over his shoulder as she admitted the one thing she didn't want him to know.

"I'm not supposed to be alone. At all. Ever, until this is over."

* * *

**Disclaimers:**

Anything from Power Rangers (and their affiliates) belongs to Saban. I don't have permission to use and abuse them as I plan on doing.

I don't own InuYasha and Company either. The "real" InuYasha belongs to the genius of Rumiko Takahashi (and Viz and all those other companies involved).


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